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Risk factors for homelessness: A structural equation approach
Author(s) -
Czaderny Krzysztof
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
journal of community psychology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.585
H-Index - 86
eISSN - 1520-6629
pISSN - 0090-4392
DOI - 10.1002/jcop.22332
Subject(s) - conviction , unemployment , addiction , psychology , structural equation modeling , preference , wage , criminal conviction , developmental psychology , social psychology , psychiatry , labour economics , economics , political science , statistics , mathematics , law , microeconomics , economic growth
This study aims to assess the pathway relationships between adolescent adversities, adult addictive behaviours, divorce, conviction, long‐standing unemployment, disability, and homelessness. A structural equation model was estimated using data on n 1 = 677 homeless men and n 2 = 651 housed men of the same age and educational distribution, living in Warsaw, Poland. Retrospective adolescent adversities were found to be significantly related to the occurrence of adult homelessness ( p ≤ .01). This relationship was mainly indirect and largely mediated by addictive behaviours, divorce, conviction, and unemployment. Addiction, divorce, and conviction were the three most frequent events preceding homelessness and were likely to coincide. The first job experience did not differentiate the two groups from each other. However, homeless individuals were more likely to currently prefer self‐employment over wage employment. Low perceived importance of family life and preference for self‐employment over wage employment were hypothesised to be related to the severity of homelessness.