TY - JOUR
T1 - The psychological impact of childhood homelessness—a literature review
AU - D’Sa, Saskia
AU - Foley, Deirdre
AU - Hannon, Jessica
AU - Strashun, Sabina
AU - Murphy, Anne Marie
AU - O’Gorman, Clodagh
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2020, Royal Academy of Medicine in Ireland.
PY - 2021/2
Y1 - 2021/2
N2 - In August 2019, 3848 children in Ireland were faced with emergency homelessness [1]. In recent years, lack of affordable housing, unemployment and shortage of rental properties have been the primary driving factors for the potentially devastating impact of familial homelessness in our society [1]. Our aim was to evaluate current knowledge on the psychological impact of homelessness in children. Using the PRISMA model, we performed a review of the currently available literature on the psychological impact of homelessness on children. This concept was explored under two different categories—‘transgenerational’ and ‘new-onset homelessness’. Hidden homelessness was also explored. Our literature review revealed several psychological morbidities which were unique to children. This includes developmental and learning delays, behavioural difficulties and increased levels of anxiety and depression [66, 77, 40, 81, 42]. This has been demonstrated by poorer performance in school testing and increased levels of aggression. Anxiety in children within this cohort has been shown to peak at time of dispersion from their stable home environment [67]. Our study highlights violence, aggression and poor academic learning outcomes to be just some of the key findings in our review of homelessness in childhood, worldwide. Unfortunately, there has been minimum research to date on paediatric homelessness within the context of the Irish population. We anticipate this review to be the first chapter in a multipart series investigation to evaluate the psychological morbidity of paediatric homelessness within the Irish Society.
AB - In August 2019, 3848 children in Ireland were faced with emergency homelessness [1]. In recent years, lack of affordable housing, unemployment and shortage of rental properties have been the primary driving factors for the potentially devastating impact of familial homelessness in our society [1]. Our aim was to evaluate current knowledge on the psychological impact of homelessness in children. Using the PRISMA model, we performed a review of the currently available literature on the psychological impact of homelessness on children. This concept was explored under two different categories—‘transgenerational’ and ‘new-onset homelessness’. Hidden homelessness was also explored. Our literature review revealed several psychological morbidities which were unique to children. This includes developmental and learning delays, behavioural difficulties and increased levels of anxiety and depression [66, 77, 40, 81, 42]. This has been demonstrated by poorer performance in school testing and increased levels of aggression. Anxiety in children within this cohort has been shown to peak at time of dispersion from their stable home environment [67]. Our study highlights violence, aggression and poor academic learning outcomes to be just some of the key findings in our review of homelessness in childhood, worldwide. Unfortunately, there has been minimum research to date on paediatric homelessness within the context of the Irish population. We anticipate this review to be the first chapter in a multipart series investigation to evaluate the psychological morbidity of paediatric homelessness within the Irish Society.
KW - Childhood homelessness
KW - Familial homelessness
KW - Homeless in Ireland
KW - Psychological impact
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85085980936&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/s11845-020-02256-w
DO - 10.1007/s11845-020-02256-w
M3 - Review article
C2 - 32488463
AN - SCOPUS:85085980936
SN - 0021-1265
VL - 190
SP - 411
EP - 417
JO - Irish Journal of Medical Science
JF - Irish Journal of Medical Science
IS - 1
ER -