Housing Distress among High School Students

• Published in: Social work (New York) Vol. 42; no. 1; pp. 31 - 41
• Main Authors: Vissing, Yvonne M., Diament, Joseph
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: United States Oxford University Press 01-01-1997; National Association of Social Workers
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adolescents; Child Advocacy; Child neglect; Child psychology; Child Welfare; Dwellings; Education; Family Characteristics; Female; High Risk Students; High School Students; High schools; Homeless People; Homeless Persons - statistics & numerical data; Homeless youth; Homelessness; Housing; Housing - statistics & numerical data; housing distress; Housing Needs; Humans; Maine; Male; New Hampshire; Parents; Polls & surveys; Risk; Runaways; school; School age children; School surveys; Secondary Education; Secondary school students; Social aspects; Socioeconomic Factors; Street children; Students; Teenagers; Transient Children; youths; Maine; New Hampshire; homelessness; adolescents; school; youths; housing distress
• ISSN: 0037-8046; 1545-6846
• DOI: 10.1093/sw/42.1.31

The word “homelessness” is not a useful term to explain housing problems experienced by high school-aged youths. The term “housing distress” is preferable because it includes both teenagers who are homeless and those who are at risk of homelessness. Many teenagers feel that they have no place where they belong and seek alternative living arrangements for a variety of reasons. Housing distress is a problem for schools because students have difficulties achieving academic success when they have no consistent, safe place to live. To understand how much or how little housing distress is experienced by high school-aged youths, 3,676 high school-aged teenagers were surveyed in nine communities along the seacoast of New Hampshire and southwestern Maine. Between 5 percent and 10 percent of the teenagers surveyed reported that they had been homeless sometime during the past year. Up to 20 percent of the high school students lived in arrangements that could be considered to be distressing and to put them at risk of becoming homeless.