School of Social Work, University of Illinois at Urbana---Champaign, USA.
Am J Public Health. 2011 Dec;101 Suppl 1(Suppl 1):S255-61. doi: 10.2105/AJPH.2010.300098. Epub 2011 May 6.
We assessed the independent effect of homeless and doubled-up episodes on physical and mental health, cognitive development, and health care use among children.
We used data from 4 waves of the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, involving a sample of 2631 low-income children in 20 large US cities who have been followed since birth. Multivariate analyses involved logistic regression using the hybrid method to include both fixed and random effects.
Of the sample, 9.8% experienced homelessness and an additional 23.6% had a doubled-up episode. Housing status had little significant adverse effect on child physical or mental health, cognitive development, or health care use.
Family and environmental stressors common to many children in poverty, rather than just homeless and doubled-up episodes, were associated with young children's poor health and cognitive development and high health care use. Practitioners need to identify and respond to parental and family needs for support services in addition to housing assistance to effectively improve the health and development of young children who experience residential instability, particularly those in homeless families.
我们评估了无家可归和双重居住事件对儿童身心健康、认知发展和医疗保健利用的独立影响。
我们使用了来自脆弱家庭和儿童福利研究的 4 个波次的数据，该研究涉及 20 个美国大城市的 2631 名低收入儿童，自出生以来一直跟踪调查。多变量分析采用混合方法的逻辑回归，包括固定效应和随机效应。
在样本中，9.8%的儿童经历过无家可归，另有 23.6%的儿童有双重居住经历。住房状况对儿童身心健康、认知发展或医疗保健利用几乎没有显著的不利影响。
与贫困儿童普遍存在的家庭和环境压力源有关，而不仅仅是无家可归和双重居住事件，这些压力源与幼儿健康状况不佳和认知发展不良以及医疗保健利用率高有关。从业者需要确定和回应父母和家庭对支持服务的需求，除了住房援助，以有效地改善经历居住不稳定的幼儿的健康和发展，特别是那些无家可归家庭的幼儿。
