Stressors, coping efforts, and coping resources of homeless children

A qualitative, descriptive, exploratory study was done to examine the day to day stressors, coping efforts, and coping resources of homeless children aged 7 to 11 years old living in a homeless shelter with their families. Fourteen children participated in the study which utilized a sentence completion list and a semistructured daily journal in the shelter school classroom to obtain the stressors, coping efforts, and coping resources of these children. A demographic questionnaire was also utilized to get a description of the sample and identify reasons for homelessness. The demographic information obtained revealed that unemployment, personal crisis, and inability to stay with family or friends were primary reasons for homelessness in this sample. Content analysis was utilized to analyze the qualitative data. Analysis of the stressors revealed 10 different categories of stressors with the stressor categories disappointments and children in the shelter being predominant. A total of 15 coping effort categories was developed from the data obtained from the children with seeking support efforts being predominant in the sentence completion list and compliance/endurance being predominant in the daily journal. Coping resource data revealed 9 categories with formal children. Categories that included structured activities were shown to be an important resource to these children. Coping effort themes and stressor-coping effort transactions were also analyzed. Although the sample size for this study was small, it is important to note the results because of the difficulty in studying this population. The results of this study are important to nurses and other professionals working with homeless children in that it show that these children perceive and experience stress. It also shows the importance of structured activities as a resource for these children.