Relationship between adverse childhood experiences and adult homelessness: A secondary analysis of behavioral risk factor surveillance system data

Childhood adversity—including childhood maltreatment, witnessing violence, and having a parent with mental illness or addiction—may pose risk for a number of poor outcomes across the life span. These adverse outcomes, related to education and work attainment, relationships with others, and mental and physical wellbeing, may co-occur with and contribute to housing instability and homelessness in adulthood.

Previous research linking adverse childhood experiences and adult homelessness has been based largely on cross-sectional retrospective studies that use homeless samples or samples of individuals reporting childhood adversity. The complexity of the relationship between adverse childhood experiences and adult homelessness, along with the limitations inherent in the existing literature exploring this relationship, underscores the value of a population-based design based on probability sampling, which allows an evaluation of the relationship between childhood experience and adult outcomes considering the full range of possible outcomes (i.e., history of childhood adversity or not, history of homelessness or not).

Using data collected through the Washington State Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS), using a probability-based sample representative of the general population, this study will assess the relationship between adverse childhood experiences and three measures of adult homelessness: (a) any time spent living in a homeless situation since age 18, (b) frequent or chronic homelessness, and (c) current housing instability among individuals with a history of homelessness. Findings from logistic regression analyses indicate that childhood adversity predicts increased odds of adult homelessness; further, accumulation of adverse childhood experiences is related to increased risk of adult homelessness.