RESEARCH TOPICS

RESEARCH BY TOPIC

Who are Street Youth?

The street youth population is diverse, complex and heterogeneous. The generic term "street youth" is made up of a number of subcultures¹ (by no means mutually exclusive) including hard-core street entrenched young people, squatters, group home kids, child welfare kids, soft-core 'twinkies', "in-and-outers', punks, runaways, throwaways, refugees and immigrants, young single mothers, and those who are homeless because their entire family are homeless. Within these makeshift 'categories' are numerous descriptors that tend to signal street activities such as gang bangers, prostitutes, drug dealers, drug users, panhandlers, and squeegeeers. While there is considerable diversity in the age ranges considered by researchers, providers and policy makers to define street youth, 16 - 24 years of age is accepted by many as reflects both the age limits of many services and the age range of the social networks of many youths. Street youths are generally understood to be young individuals who do not have a permanent place to call home, and who instead, spend significant amount of time/energy on the street (e.g., in alleyways, parks, storefronts, dumpsters, etc.); in squats (located usually in abandoned buildings); at youth shelters and centers; and/or with friends (typically referred to as "couch surfers").

_{¹ Karabanow, J. (2004a). Being young and homeless: Understanding how youth enter and exit street life. New York: Peter Lang.}

Have there always been street youth?

Whether they are called street kids, runaways, boy/girl tramps or delinquents, youths who leave their homes for a life on the streets have been a cause of social concern for hundreds of years in North America¹. Records from the early 1600s describe problems that officials were having with youths running away from their guardians to form a new life for themselves in the colonies. Through the 18th and first half of the 19th centuries many of these young people were indentured into service, placed in orphanages run by churches or charitable organizations, placed in almshouses, or were provided with food via "outdoor relief". Generally, they were treated no differently than adult vagrants, and records suggest that in many almshouses these youths were severely malnourished. The mid-to-late 19th century saw considerable change both in terms of public perception and legislation regarding displaced and homeless young persons. Public attention was brought to the horrific conditions existing in many of the institutions housing these youths, and social reformers campaigned to save these children both physically and morally. These efforts led to the creation of the juvenile court, the criminalization of running away, and to youth and adult homelessness being addressed separately.
Three other periods when numbers of homeless and runaway youths have received substantial attention in both the media and in legislation were the Great Depression, during the Countercultural Movement of the 1960s, and in a steadily maintained attention that emerged in the mid 1970s that has more or less remained constant to the present time. During the Depression large numbers of youths became transient, often with the consent of their parents due to the dire economic circumstances of the early 1930s. At this time the Federal Emergency Relief Administration was established in the United States, a part of Roosevelt's New Deal program of social reform, which provided camps and shelters for homeless and impoverished young people. The large number of runaways that appeared in the mid-late 1960s were different in that most of these youths came from middle and upper class backgrounds and they tended to travel more widely than their predecessors. Since that time the numbers of homeless youths would appear to be steadily rising with the advent of legislation that focuses specifically upon youth homelessness and funding for services for homeless youths (e.g.,Youth Runaway Act, 1974).

_{¹ Libertoff, K. (1980). The runaway child in America: A social history. Journal of Family Issues, 1, 151-164.}

How do they end up on the streets?

The majority of street youth trade difficult lives at home for a difficult life on the street. Many come from disrupted and dysfunctional families in which poverty, divorce, domestic violence, parental drug abuse and criminality is commonplace^1-4. High rates of physical, sexual, emotional abuse and neglect are found in the backgrounds of many street youth and for most, running away (or being thrown out) is an escape from such environments^3-5. Additionally, a substantial proportion of homeless youths end up on the streets upon discharge or running from child protection services and exiting the criminal justice system.

_{¹ Buckner, J. C., & Bassuk, E. L. (1997). Mental disorders and service utilization among youths from homeless and low-income household families. Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, 36, 890-900.
² Hagan, J., & McCarthy, B. (1997). Mean streets: youth crime and homelessness. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University.
³ Maclean, M. G., Embry, L. E., & Cauce, A. M. (1999). Homeless adolescents' paths to separation from family: Comparison of family characteristics, psychological adjustment, and victimization. Journal of Community Psychology, 27, 179-187.
⁴ Ringwalt, C. L., Greene, J. M., & Robertson, M. J. (1998). Familial backgrounds and risk behaviors of youth with throwaway experiences. Journal of Adolescence, 21, 241-252.
⁵ Molnar, B. E., Shade, S. B., Kral, A. H., Booth, R. E., & Watters, J. K. (1998). Suicidal behavior and sexual/physical abuse among street youth. Child Abuse & Neglect, 22, 213-222.}

What difficulties do they face on the streets?

Once on the streets, most of these young people regularly lack shelter and have difficulty obtaining adequate amounts of food¹. In their struggle to survive, they variously attempt to find work, seek money from family/friends, panhandle, enter the sex trade or engage in survival sex (sex for food, shelter, etc.), and/or engage in criminal activity ^1-2. The difficulty of surviving is compounded by the danger of sexual and physical assaults that occur frequently in the street environment³. Street youth are at risk for a broad spectrum of health problems, including poor nutrition⁴ a high occurrence of HIV infection⁵ and drug addiction⁶, and mortality rates have been found to be up to 40 times that of the general population⁷. Related to the extremely negative backgrounds common to many street youth, and the subsequent stressors they face on the street, are significant mental health concerns. These include high rates of depression and post traumatic stress disorder⁸. Suicide and death due to drug overdose have been found to be the leading causes of death among street youths⁹.

_{¹ Hagan, J., & McCarthy, B. (1997). Mean streets: youth crime and homelessness. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
² Greene, J. M., Ennett, S. T., & Ringwalt, C. L. (1999). Prevalence and correlates of survival sex among runaway and homeless youth. American Journal of Public Health, 89 1406-1409.
³ Terrell, N. E. (1997). Aggravated and sexual assaults among homeless and runaway adolescents. Youth & Society, 28, 267-290.
⁴ Antoniades, M. & Tarasuk, V. (1998). A survey of food problems experienced by Toronto street youth. Canadian Journal of Public Health, 89, 371-375.
⁵ Booth, R. E., Zhang, Y., & Kwiatkowski, C. F. (1999). The challenge of changing drug and sex risk behaviors of runaway and homeless adolescents. Child Abuse & Neglect, 23, 1295-1306.
⁶ Slesnick, N., & Prestopnik, J. (2005). Dual and multiple diagnosis among substance using runaway youth. The American Journal of Drug and Alcohol Abuse, 1, 179-201.
⁷ Shaw, M., & Dorling, D. (1998). Mortality among street youth in the UK. Lancet, 352, 743.
⁸ Cauce, A.M., Paradise, M., Ginzler, J.A., Embry, L., Morgan, C.J., Lohr, Y., & Theofelis, J. (2000). The characteristics and mental health of homeless adolescents. Journal of Emotional and Behavioral Disorders, 8, 230-239.
⁹ Roy, E., Haley, N., Leclerc, P., Sochanski, B., Boudreau, J., Boivin, J. (2004). Mortality in a cohort of street youth in Montreal. Journal of the American Medical Association, 292, 569- 574.}

How many street youth are there?

Due to both difficulties locating homeless youths and ambiguity regarding the definition of a "homeless youth", generating a reliable estimate of the number of street youths is extremely difficult. It has been noted, however, that in North America there has been a marked trend towards increasing numbers of homeless youths in the past 30 years with some recent estimates suggesting 1 million or more¹.

_{1 Kidd S.A., Scrimenti, K. (2004). The New Haven homeless count: Children and youth. Evaluation Review, 28, 325-341.}

How do they survive on the streets?

While much of the research literature and popular coverage of youth homelessness revolves around portrayals of the high levels of risk, grim lives, and early deaths of these young people some studies have found tremendous resilience in compliment to extreme risk. These works have found that many youths have developed strong abilities to be self-reliant, networks of mutual support, and spirituality^1-2. Further, many homeless young people demonstrate an ability to adapt to extremely adverse circumstances, constructing new skill sets and values that allow them to survive for years in any number of dangerous contexts³.

_{¹ Rew, L., & Horner, S.D. (2003). Personal strengths of homeless adolescents living in a high- risk environment. Advances in Nursing Science, 26, 90-101.
² Lindsay, E. W., Kurtz, D., Jarvis, S., Williams, N. R., & Nackerud, L. (2000). How runaways and homeless youth navigate troubled waters: Personal strengths and resources. Child and Adolescent Social Work Journal, 17, 115-140.
³ Kidd, S. A., & Davidson, L. (2007). "You have to adapt because you have no other choice.": The stories of strength and resilience of 208 homeless youth in New York City and Toronto. Journal of Community Psychology, 35, 219-238.}