English 211c - Homelessness

Meg Sidbury

Carrie Emerson-Coyle

English 211C (22750)

May 3, 2017

Word Count:

Research Paper

        Homelessness is a huge problem in the United States that has only increased in the last 100 years. Some people are homeless their entire lives which means often times children are born into a world with no shelter. A child born into homelessness already has disadvantages because they’re probably not eating enough, getting proper vaccines, or getting the early education that most children receive. Kids who go to pre-school, kindergarten, and grade school have better social skills, higher IQ’s, enhanced attention spans, and graduate high school more often than kids who grow up without an education. Kids who aren’t enrolled in school typically act out, get involved with alcohol or drugs, and are more susceptible to crime in their teenage years. Child homelessness is a worldwide epidemic that has debilitating effects on mental health, education, and overall development.

        Aside from the obvious benefits of going to school, children should attend so they can have at least one source of stability and consistency in their lives. Going to class for a few hours with children your age and receiving a meal or two is a wholesome distraction from what they’re used to. Attending school is probably a low priority for these children since they have much more to deal with, but parents should strongly encourage it for the long-term benefits. Helping their children get an education could make sure they have a better, more successful future than they had for themselves. According to the National Center on Family Homelessness, homelessness could result in children’s separation from their parents – either because children are formally placed in foster care, or because parents leave children in the care of relatives and friends. Children who are left behind by their parents, for whatever reason, typically have low self-esteem and various feelings of anger, fear, and loneliness. Gao, et al. conducted a study of 2,986 school children, 18.1% of whom were children left behind. They noted that among the most widespread emotional-affective problems expressed by children left behind were unhappiness (15.3%), had fantasies of running away from home (14.1%), sadness (9.4%), and suicidal ideations (8.7%) (Gao, 2010). These unwavering feelings of loneliness and abandonment never go away, so these children are affected psychologically over time.

        In order to have normal early childhood experiences, children need to acquire basic developmental competencies or else they might be exposed to social and biological risk factors. Social risk factors, such as homelessness and child maltreatment, place children at risk for poor academic outcomes as well as biological risk factors, such as low birth weight and premature birth (Fantuzzo, 2007). Developmental epidemiology focuses on the change in developing individuals and applies this approach to better understand the patterns of risk and disorder in the community. It stresses the importance of a nurturing and stable environment because children who have these relationships with people are more likely to have enhanced cognitive, physical, and emotional well-being. If children don’t develop properly in their early childhood years, it becomes more and more difficult for them to catch up with their peers, which can be frustrating as the child grows up and notices they’re behind. Several studies were conducted to prove that children in out-of-home care show more behaviors of aggression and are at greater risk of having poor attendance (Weiss and Fantuzzo, 2001).