Stressors and coping behaviors of homeless, poor, and low-income mothers.

Homeless mothers and their children have become a highly politicized issue. This article presented a study comparing the stressors and coping behaviors of homeless women with their domiciled counterparts, low-income and poor mothers. The results of the study indicated that although homeless, poor, and low-income mothers cope in a similar manner, homeless mothers were considerably more disadvantaged in terms of education, family size, and work history, and were besieged by many more stressors. These results suggest that CHNs must design interventions that are not only interdisciplinary in nature and use the expertise of many professional groups but also influence the communities' political and decision-making bodies.