, to include: homelessness characteristics, domestic violence, and self-concealment and help-seeking behaviors.
Toro, Bellavia, Daeschler, Owens, Wall, Passero, and Thomas (1995) conducted the most recent study found, regarding the characteristics of the homeless. For their study, a sample of 144 adults, randomly sampled from different homeless and housed poor sites were investigated. Findings showed that the homeless group were: more likely to have a DSM-III diagnosis of substance abuse higher levels of psychological distress as self-reported, more likely to be domestic violence victims, more likely to have been physically abused as children, and less likely to be receiving public benefits, than normal controls (p. 280).
Toro et al. note that in their review of over 50 studies regarding the homeless, in the last ten years, most were cross-sectional survey studies focused on describing the homeless population. Most have found high rates of mental illness and substance abuse, criminal behavior, and health problems. Methodological limitations of these studies include a lack of appropriate comparison groups of non-homeless individuals. Those studies that do compare homeless to others tend to find the homeless to be a more deviant population. The authors conclude that studies need to distinguish between characteristics that are unique to the homeless group, and they state that this has not been done, to date (Toro et al., pp. 281-282).
For this study, Toro et al. list a study limitation of their investigation to be the small sample size. Although attempts were made to include non-homeless (poor housed), the group was small (n=54). Despite these limitations, the finding that a large percentage of the homeless were domestic violence victims, and that this group tended not to be receiving help in the form of public benefits, lends credence to the proposed study.
Toro and Wall (1991) studied the homeless to determine d...