Article Review One

Psychosocial Characteristics of Homeless Children and Children With Homes

This study was a quantitative study that set out to compare children of homeless families to those that were poor but had homes, both of which were single mother families. 

Participants: 49 families with 86 children living within six family shelters in Boston, Massachusetts between April 1985 and July 1985. The mothers within these families were a mean age of 28 years old and had a mean number of 2.4 children. It was stated that 33% of the mothers were white and Hispanics were highly underrepresented.

For the control, the poor families that had housing were selected based on their willingness to participate once asked by researchers who came to their door. The houses that were tried had been chosen based on the neighborhoods poverty rate in Boston. There were 820 houses selected and only 81 families participated with a total of 134 children. Mean age of these mothers was 29 and mean number of children was 2.5. The mothers of these families were 32% white.

The age of the children for both variables was a mean of around 6 years old.

Data Collection: The data was collected within the homes and shelters of the participants and little privacy was considered. One researcher would interview the mother while another researcher would interview the children. The interviews included behavioral checklists as well as demographic information collection. Interviewing time varied based on interruptions, the child's ability to focus, the setting, as well as the need for the researcher to assist the participant.

Data Analysis: A statistical analysis was performed on the information gained using the behavioral checklists to find differences that were statistically significant (P<.05). Also, since some of the mothers had more than one child and that information may skew the data, the researchers also picked one child from each family and repeated the analysis.

Conclusion: The results showed that the homeless children generally scored worse on the behavioral checklists compared to the children with homes, but the differences were not significant except for with one of the five checklists used. The one significant finding was that preschool students that are homeless have more developmental lags in comparison to preschoolers with homes.

When reviewing this study, I find that I would not put much faith into the results being given. The way the researchers went about finding the sample for the control was very convenient because it only included those people that answered their doors and agreed to complete the study. A convenience sample is never very trustworthy when it comes to studies. Also, the sample size was fairly small therefore can not be generalized to the homeless population as a whole.

The research article did not discuss the validity of of the checklists used in the interviews. Also the interviews were not completed in a setting that was conducive to best results. It was stated in the article that the checklists given in the beginning of the interviews are probably more valid compared to those given later in the interview when the children's focus was waning. 

Overall I believe this study could have been done in a better way.

Bassuk, E. L., & Rosenberg, L. (1990). Psychosocial characteristics of homeless children and children with homes. Pediatrics, (85), 257. Retrieved from http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/85/3/257