Review of 3 Articles on the Homeless Bassuk, E.L. & Rosenberg, L. (1988).

This study's stated purpose was to identify correlates of family homelessness. No hypotheses were tested and no research questions were stated.

The review of existing work in the field was relatively brief consisting of about seven studies in which researchers postulated that there were a number of sociodemographic and psychological contributors to family homelessness (e.g., unmet medical needs, lack of social support, psychoemotional problems, social conditions such as poverty, unemployment, etc.)---it was these same sociodemographic and psychological variables that were examined in Bassuk and Rosenberg's study. The authors also reported that no prior studies of the sociodemographic and psychological correlates of family homelessness had conducted systematic comparisons of homelessness and housed families and that the undertaken study consisted of this needed comparative research.

Methods used in the research involved stratified sampling techniques used to obtain two subject groups (homeless families and housed families), all of whom were currently living in low-income areas of Boston, were headed by females, and were poor. In other words, homeless families containing both parents and single father-headed families were not included in the study and it cannot be known as to whether findings generalize to the

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tudies that found high mental illness levels among the homeless are cited as indicative of the claim that mental illness is pervasive in this population. No hypotheses were tested and no research questions were formulated in the study. Sample subjects consisted of two groups: (1) a non-probability sample of men and women obtained form diverse social and medical agencies; and (2) a random sample of homeless poor (mostly men) who had at least one contact with the Salvation army within the time frame of the study. Methods included participant observation techniques and institutional tracking procedures. Variables examined in the study were the: (1) socio- demographic characteristics of sample (e.g., age, gender, etc.); (2) number of homeless in the sample that had been institutionalized for mental health problems; and (3) degree of seriousness of the mental health problem. Data analyses indicated that there was a 10 percent institutionalization rate in the sample overall which is said to be higher than the general population in Texas but lower than the 33 percent and up rate cited in "most" studies. Unfortunately, since the authors only cited a few studies, it is difficult to know if in fact most studies have observed such h
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 2813
Approximate Pages = 11 (250 words per page)