Building Resilience through Intervention, Direct Guidance, and Empowerment (BRIDGE): A demonstration project to assist youth aging out of foster care in Poland.

(BRIDGE) is an innovative program designed to prevent homelessness and other negative outcomes among youth aging out of foster care. BRIDGE was pilot-tested on youth aging out of two orphanages in a city in southern Poland in 2009-2012. Youth were recruited at age 17, before aging out at age 18.

The prevalence and correlates of running away among adolescents in the United States.

Runaway youth may experience a myriad of challenges associated with significant risks to health and well-being. To examine the prevalence and correlates of running away from home among US youth. Annual US nationally representative samples of 8th and 10th graders between 2005 and 2017 from the Monitoring the Future study.

Murray Levine (1928-2020).

Memorializes Murray Levine (1928-2020), a pioneer in community psychology. In 1968 Levine became professor of psychology and director of the clinical and community psychology program at State University of New York at Buffalo (SUNY Buffalo), soon making it one of the top programs in the country. At Buffalo, he shaped community psychology through nu merous books and articles and by mentoring many doctoral-level students and junior faculty.

Depression Screening at a Community Health Fair: Descriptives and Treatment Linkage.

Objective: Health fairs are a cost-efficient platform for dissemination of preventive services to vulnerable populations. Effectiveness of depression screenings and associated treatment linkage via community health fairs warrants investigation.

Methods: This study offers the first examination of a depression screening at a community health fair in 261 adult men (18-87years).

Understanding the Attainment of Stable Housing: A Seven-Year Longitudinal Analysis of Homeless Adolescents.

Stable housing provides a solid foundation for youth development, making it an essential topic of study among young homeless people. Although gains have been made in research with adolescents and young adults experiencing homelessness, few longitudinal studies of this population exist, clouding the long-term housing outcome picture. The current study examined the course and risk factors for homelessness in a sample of 243 homeless adolescents followed over a seven-year period.

Comparing the characteristics of homeless adults in Poland and the United States.

This study compared the characteristics of probability samples of homeless adults in Poland (N = 200 from two cities) and the United States (N = 219 from one city), using measures with established reliability and validity in homeless populations. The same measures were used across nations and a systemic translation procedure assured comparability of measurement. The two samples were similar on some measures: In both nations, most homeless adults were male, many reported having dependent children and experiencing out-of-home placements when they themselves were children, and high levels of physical health problems were observed.

Peer substance use and homelessness predicting substance abuse from adolescence through early adulthood.

Adolescents who experience homelessness are at higher risk for abusing substances, and for being exposed to substance-using peers. The current study used a longitudinal design to track substance abuse, affiliation with substance-using peers, and episodes of homelessness among a sample of 223 adolescents who were housed at the baseline data collection and 148 adolescents who were housed at baseline. Participants were interviewed at six waves over 6.

Emerging adulthood and leaving foster care: settings associated with mental health.

The present study examined the role of contextual support on mental health during the transition to adulthood within a vulnerable group, adolescents leaving foster care because of their age. Participants were 265 19- to 23-year-olds who retrospectively reported on 3 main contexts of emerging adulthood: housing security, educational achievement, and employment attainment in the first 2 years after leaving foster care. Mental health measured self-reported emotional distress, substance abuse, and deviancy at the time of interview.

Changes in the composition of the homeless population: 1992-2002.

This study examines changes in the characteristics of the homeless population before and after a period of extended economic expansion (1992-2002). Data from other sources suggest that, during this 10-year period, the size of the overall population of homeless persons may have declined slightly, though not significantly, both in the city studied and nationally. In-depth surveys of representative samples of homeless adults (N = 249 in 1992-94; N = 220 in 2000-2002) revealed significant differences in the composition of the homeless population across the time period, consistent with queuing theory.

Predicting overt and covert antisocial behaviors: parents, peers, and homelessness.

Parental deviance, parental monitoring, and deviant peers were examined as predictors of overt and covert antisocial behaviors. Homeless (N=231) and housed (N=143) adolescents were assessed in adolescence and again in early adulthood. Homelessness predicted both types of antisocial behaviors, and effects persisted in young adulthood.

Parent-adolescent violence and later behavioral health problems among homeless and housed youth.

Parent-adolescent violence (i.e., violence between parents and adolescents) is an important pathway to homelessness and predicts poor behavioral health outcomes among youth.

Community and family violence: indirect effects of parental monitoring on externalizing problems.

This study examines the mediating role of parenting on the relationship between exposure to violence and externalizing problems. Participants include 214 at-risk urban adolescents. Structured interviews assessed exposure to community and family violence, parental monitoring and warmth, as well as substance abuse and conduct problems.

Pathways to and from homelessness and associated psychosocial outcomes among adolescents leaving the foster care system.

Objectives: We evaluated the prevalence and nature of housing problems among adolescents leaving foster care because of their age to provide evidence that can inform public and programmatic policies designed to prevent homelessness.

Methods: Housing and psychosocial outcomes in a sample of 265 adolescents who left the foster care system in 2002 and 2003 in a large midwestern metropolitan area were evaluated over a 2-year follow-up period. Analyses focused on identifying latent housing trajectory categories across the first 2 years after participants' exit from foster care.

Age differences among homeless individuals: adolescence through adulthood.

The present study examines differences between homeless adolescents, young adults, and older adults served by homeless shelters or food programs to inform service provision. Four homeless studies using the same sampling and measurement methods were pooled to permit comparisons across age groups. Results showed that homeless adolescents demonstrated greater resilience than younger and older adults.

COMMUNITY VIOLENCE AND EXTERNALIZING PROBLEMS: MODERATING EFFECTS OF RACE AND RELIGIOSITY IN EMERGING ADULTHOOD.

The present study examined racial differences in the relationship between exposure to community violence and public and private religiosity in predicting externalizing problems among at-risk emerging adults. Participants were 178 African American and 163 European American emerging adults at risk for exposure to community violence. Exposure to community violence related to more externalizing problems.

Diagnostic and other correlates of HIV risk behaviors in a probability sample of homeless adults.

Objectives: This study assessed the relationship between psychiatric disorders, including substance abuse and dependence, and risk behaviors for contracting HIV.

Methods: A probability sample of 218 homeless men and women were recruited from food programs and shelters assisting homeless individuals in an urban metropolitan community. Mood disorders, schizophrenia, and substance abuse and dependence diagnoses were assessed with the Diagnostic Interview Schedule (version 3A).

Homelessness in the United States: assessing changes in prevalence and public opinion, 1993-2001.

A national survey was administered in 1993-1994 (N = 360) and repeated in 2001 (N = 435) to assess the prevalence of homelessness as well as attitudes, opinions and knowledge regarding homelessness. No significant changes in prevalence were found, despite a strong US economy during most of the 7-8 year period. Respondents in 2001 had less stereotyped views of homeless people and were more supportive of services, but came to see homelessness as a less serious problem that was less often due to economic factors.

Community psychology: where do we go from here?

Following a developmental analogy, community psychology may be experiencing a "mid-life crisis" as it enters "middle age." The field needs to determine where to go from here. This paper argues that the field should attempt to expand.

Homelessness among families, children, and adolescents: an ecological-developmental perspective.

This paper reviews and evaluates the literatures on children in families that are homeless and on adolescents who are homeless on their own. After presenting several emerging theoretical approaches, we propose a broad ecological-developmental perspective that recognizes that, although persons in these groups often lack resources and experience negative events that can amplify the risk for poor outcomes, they also have resources and adaptive potential. The perspective also recognizes that homelessness may have different meanings and outcomes at different points in development and that we need to consider interactions between individual development and multiple levels of social organization in order to foster new solutions to homelessness.

Antisocial behavior and affiliation with deviant peers.

We examined the associations among gender, antisocial behavior, and peer-group affiliation in a high-risk sample of 401 homeless and matched housed adolescents (139 boys and 262 girls). The Diagnostic Interview Schedule for Children (Version 2.3, 1991; Costello, Edelbrock, Kalas, Kessler, & Klaric, 1982) yielded 2 measures of adolescent antisocial behavior: symptoms of conduct disorder and substance abuse or dependence.