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The article provides a critique of qualitative nursing research regarding children's experiences of being without a place to call home. The phenomena under study were the lived experience of being without a home, feeling uncomfortable, hope, and what was special in the children's lives. Parse's criteria for the critique of qualitative research were used. A synthesis of the interpretive findings about the children's experiences is presented. Recommendations for advancing nursing theory, nursing research, and nursing practice are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

ABSTRACT More than 30 percent of the homeless are families with children; however, little is known about these families, particularly rural homeless mothers with children. The purpose of this study was to describe the characteristics of rural homeless mothers, their physical and mental health, and their health care practices. A descriptive cross-sectional design was used to study a sample of 76 rural mothers with children younger than age 13. An interview schedule and the SCL-90-R were used to collect data about these families. The majority of the families had been homeless for more than four months, 46 percent were woman-headed, 17 percent of the mothers reported having a physical health problem, and only 3 percent had scores on the SCL-90-R that were indicative of needing additional evaluation for possible mental health problems. The use of drugs was higher than expected, which puts both the mothers and their children at risk for health problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Seventy-two school-aged children and their parents participated in tape-recorded interviews to identify the needs and concerns of the children and their perceptions of changes experienced by the family related to having a child with a chronic illness. The majority of the child subjects expressed worries about their sibling who had a chronic illness. The subjects identified more changes in their parents than in themselves. The children and their parents were in agreement that the school-aged children worried about the sibling with the chronic illness, hut they did not agree about the nature of the worries and concerns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Homelessness among children has been called a national tragedy. Homeless children, by virtue of their unique situation, are particularly vulnerable for early initiation of and sustained participation in substance abuse behaviors. The authors describe homeless children in relation to drug abuse etiology research, discuss current prevention strategies, suggest necessary components of an interdisciplinary prevention curriculum for homeless preschool children, and delineate methods for delivering the curriculum to the children. Nurses, given their unique role in the healthcare delivery system as well as a holistic world view, are in an unparalleled position to facilitate the design and implementation of such curricula. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Homelessness has been called a national crisis and homeless families a national tragedy. The presence of large numbers of mothers and small children without homes in a self-perceived country of affluence and opportunity has become an extremely politicized issue that has received a great deal of media attention. Little, however, is known empirically about the effects of the phenomenon on those who experience it. Although myths abound regarding this population, conventional wisdom implies that the homeless are predominantly mentally ill, substance abusers lazy, or in some way different from the rest of the population. These differences ac- count for their dire situation. This perspective has in some instances obscured the paucity of facts as homeless families continue to be shrouded in mystery (Bachrach, 1987; Kozol, 1988; Stoner, 1983). Little, if any, data exist concerning either stressful life events experienced by these families or their methods of coping. No published studies have compared the stress- ful life events and coping behaviors of these families to other similar groups such as poor but domiciled families. Community health nurses (CHNs) need this information to begin to develop a data base specific to homeless families so that appropriate group specific nursing interventions as well as supporting political strategies can be planned. This article reports a study comparing the stressors and coping behaviors of homeless mothers, mothers who were poor but domiciled, and mothers who were low income and domiciled. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this study was to compare the stressors and coping behaviors of homeless, previously homeless, and never homeless poor school-aged children. Content analyses of interview data from 132 children were used. Forty-four (68%) of the homeless children identified at least one stressor related to being homeless. The three groups of children were similar in regard to stressors related to the family, self, peers, health, school, and environment. In regard to the violent behavior category, significantly more of the previously homeless and never homeless children expressed stressors compared to the homeless children. Significantly more previously homeless and never homeless children identified more social support coping behaviors compared to the homeless children. The three groups of children did not differ in regard to the use of behavioral and cognitive coping strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]