Youth on the Street: Maltreatment, Mental Health and Addictions

Adolescents who live on the street represent a vulnerable population with maltreatment, poly-drug abuse and mental health problems frequently co-occurring. To date, the impact of these factors has not been well documented in Canada.

The purpose of the present study was to examine rates of, and factors contributing to, co-occurring mental health and substance use problems using data from the Maltreatment and Adolescent Pathways (MAP) and the Youth Pathways Projects (YPP), which include youth who are homeless (N=125; YPP only) and youth involved in the child welfare system (N=79; MAP and YPP). A substantial percentage of youth who were homeless reported a history of involvement with child welfare services (n=64; 42.7% of the homeless sample).

The preliminary results reveal that adolescents currently living on the street have higher rates of alchol (OR=3.9)and drug abuse (OR=3.8). In addition, these youth are almost 6 times more likely to abuse alchol and have mental health issues(OR=5.7) and 8 times (OR=8.2) more likely to abuse drugs and have mental health issues compared to those in the child welfare system. These findings have important implications for policy and practice, they include a)exmaining policies related to exiting the child welfare system b)increasing access to affordable housing for adolescents who are living on the street and c) developing and evaluating targeted prevention programs for adolescents living on the street with childhood maltreatment and comorbidity.