Child and Family Well-Being and Homelessness

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-xiv

   PDF

2. Understanding and Meeting the Needs of Families Experiencing Homelessness: Introduction to the Brief

   • Mary E. Haskett

   Pages 1-6

3. Mental Health and Adaptation of Children Experiencing Family Homelessness

   • Janette E. Herbers, J. J. Cutuli, Lyuboslava Kolarova, Amanda Albu, Lauren A. Sparks

   Pages 7-26

4. Observed Parenting in Families Exposed to Homelessness: Child and Parent Characteristics as Predictors of Response to the Early Risers Intervention

   • Kendal Holtrop, Timothy F. Piehler, Abigail H. Gewirtz, Gerald J. August

   Pages 27-48

5. Assessment of Families Experiencing Homelessness: Analysis of Current Practice

   • Carmela J. DeCandia, Ellen L. Bassuk, Molly Richard

   Pages 49-63

6. Access to Early Childhood Services for Young Children Experiencing Homelessness

   • Staci M. Perlman, Sara H. Shaw, Charles H. Kieffer, Grace-Ann C. Whitney, Carie Bires

   Pages 65-82

7. Interagency Collaboration to Promote Mental Health and Development of Children Experiencing Homelessness

   • Mary E. Haskett, Jennifer Tisdale, Amy Leonard Clay

   Pages 83-99

8. A Safe, Stable Place to Call Home: Policy Implications and Next Steps to Address Family Homelessness

   • Preston A. Britner, Anne F. Farrell

   Pages 101-112

9. Back Matter

   Pages 113-116

   PDF

This brief highlights several of the most pressing challenges in addressing the needs of families who are experiencing homelessness and presents a set of strong policy recommendations for assessment, intervention, research, and service delivery related to homeless children and their parents.  Chapters increase awareness of the mental health, educational, and developmental challenges faced by these children and their parents. In addition, chapters provide practice implications of current research with a focus on the importance of careful assessment of service and housing needs; individual differences in strengths and adjustment of parents and children experiencing homelessness; and innovative treatment and service delivery approaches to address the unique needs of this population. 


Featured topics include: 

• Promoting positive parenting among homeless families.
  
• Innovative intervention, assessment, and service delivery models.
  
• Homeless children and early childhood care and education systems. 
  
• Early Risers intervention & Community Action Targeting Children who are Homeless Project (Project CATCH).

Child and Family Well-Being and Homelessness is an essential resource for policy makers and related professionals and for graduate students and researchers in developmental, clinical, and school psychology; child, youth and family policy; public health; and social work.

• Child executive functioning and homelessness
• Children’s mental health and homelessness
• Cognitive functioning and family homelessness
• Community response to family homelessness
• Depression and family homelessness
• Early childhood services and homelessness
• Early Risers intervention and family homelessness
• Emergency housing for homeless families
• Externalizing disorders and homeless children
• Families and homelessness
• Interagency collaboration on homelessness
• Internalizing disorders and homeless children
• Mental health, adaptation, and homeless families
• Parenting and homelessness
• Parenting warmth and homelessness
• Physical health and family homelessness
• Policy implications and family homelessness
• Positive parenting and homelessness
• Psychosocial interventions and homelessness
• Traumatic stress and homeless families

“This book achieves its goals of increasing awareness of the challenges faced by homeless children and families, implementing and evaluating interventions, and generating policy recommendations. … In addition to researchers and academics, this volume is likely to become a resource for policy makers, child advocates, and educators (particularly those involved with Head Start programs). … this collection of empirical studies and policy recommendations is one step in the right direction for homeless children and their families.” (Katelyn E. Poelker, Nicole D. Yong and Judith L. Gibbons, PsycCRITIQUES, Vol. 62 (31), August, 2017)

• Department of Psychology, North Carolina State University, Raleigh, USA

  Mary E. Haskett

Mary E. Haskett, Ph.D., is Professor of Psychology at North Carolina State University, where her research focuses on factors that shape parenting, the influences of parenting on children’s social-emotional development, adjustment of children with a history of maltreatment, and understanding approaches to support parents and children experiencing homelessness. She and her graduate students currently conduct research on interventions to promote positive parenting among parents residing in emergency shelters and transitional housing. Dr. Haskett co-edited (with S. Perlman and B.A. Cowan) a leading text on family homelessness, Supporting Families Experiencing Homelessness: Current Practices and Future Directions (Springer, 2014). She received the 2016 National Association for the Education of Homeless Children and Youth, Dr. Staci Perlman Achievements in Research Award.

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