Cognitive-Affective Preparation for Homelessness: Quantitative and Qualitative Analyses of Childhood Out-of-Home Placement and Child Abuse in a Sample of Homeless Men

Patterns of homelessness were examined against histories of childhood out-of-home placement and abuse in a sample of 146 homeless men. It was speculated that out-of-home placement and abuse influenced needs for love and belonging and were related to preparation for adult homelessness. Main effects of a 2 × 2 (placement by abuse) multivariate analysis of variance were significant with longer periods of time since first homeless and greater lengths of a current episode of homelessness associated with childhood out-of-home placement. Homeless men who had experienced abuse as a child had more episodes of homelessness than those who had not experienced abuse. Mean Brief Index of Self-actualization scores were not different for those with out-of-home placement or abuse; however, self-actualization scores were minimally lower with greater number of homeless episodes but not with total time homeless. Case histories supported the quantitative findings that loss of feelings of belonging in childhood were preparatory for chronic homelessness.