Pathways to Homelessness: Childhood Maltreatment and Psychiatric Symptoms Increase Risk of Homelessness

What is it about?

Childhood maltreatment and homelessness are major public health concerns and psychiatric symptoms have been implicated as risk factors for homelessness. Because of shortcomings in the designs of previous research, there is ambiguity in interpreting those findings. This new research is based on a longitudinal design where maltreated children were matched with non-maltreated children and both groups were followed into adulthood. We found that psychiatric symptoms predict future homelessness and that depression, PTSD, and antisocial personality disorder represent significant pathways through which childhood maltreatment increases risk for homelessness.

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