Changes in Social Exclusion Indicators and Psychological Distress Among Homeless People Over a 2.5-Year Period

• Published in: Social indicators research Vol. 135; no. 1; pp. 291 - 311
• Main Authors: Van Straaten, Barbara, Rodenburg, Gerda, Van der Laan, Jorien, Boersma, Sandra N., R. L. M. Wolf, Judith, Van de Mheen, Dike
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Dordrecht Springer Science + Business Media 01-01-2018; Springer Netherlands; Springer Nature B.V
• Subjects: Changes; Cohort analysis; Debt; Health care; Health insurance; Health services; Homeless people; Homelessness; Human Geography; Longitudinal Studies; Microeconomics; Psychological distress; Public Health; Quality of Life Research; Regression analysis; Relatedness; Social exclusion; Social Isolation; Social research; Social Sciences; Social support; Sociology; Netherlands; The Netherlands; Homelessness; Social exclusion; Psychological distress; Cohort study
• ISSN: 0303-8300; 1573-0921
• DOI: 10.1007/s11205-016-1486-z

Although homelessness is inherently associated with social exclusion, homeless individuals are rarely included in conventional studies on social exclusion. Use of longitudinal survey data from a cohort study on homeless people in four major Dutch cities (n = 378) allowed to examine: changes in indicators of social exclusion among homeless people over a 2.5-year period after reporting to the social relief system, and associations between changes in indicators of social exclusion and changes in psychological distress. Multinomial logistic regression analysis was applied to investigate the associations between changes in indicators of social exclusion and changes in psychological distress. Improvements were found in various indicators of social exclusion, whereas financial debts showed no significant improvement. Changes in unmet care needs, health insurance, social support from family and relatedness to others were related to changes in psychological distress. This study demonstrated improvements in various indicators of social exclusion among homeless people over a period of 2.5 years, and sheds light on the concept of social exclusion in relation to homelessness.