The document is an annotated bibliography discussing various studies related to homelessness, focusing on social support, coping mechanisms, and mental health among homeless populations. Key findings include the impact of social networks on psychological well-being, the coping strategies employed by homeless mothers, and the prevalence of mental disorders in homeless individuals. Each study highlights the complexities of homelessness and emphasizes the need for effective assessment tools and support systems.

1. Student Name
Annotated Bibliography
Bares, D.S., Toro, P.A. (1999). Developing measures to assess
social support among homeless and poor
people. Journal of Community Psychology, 27 (2), 137-156.
Baras and Toro (1999) sought to assess the social support of
homeless populations by using two
commonly used instruments: The Interpersonal Support
Evaluation (ISEL) and the Social Network
Interview (SNL). In comparing the instruments, the ISEL was
found to be useful in indicating a
participant’s psychological well-being, while the SNL helped to
assess stress-buffering effects.
More details regarding the instrument items would have been
more helpful for the use of this
paper. However, the study’s results substantiate the concept
that the presence of social support
for the homeless should support physical and psychological
health in the way that it cushions the
effects of stressful events. These instruments yielded results
indicating that larger nonfamily
social networks are a predictor for recurring homelessness, as
well as mental illness.
Galaif, E.R., Nyamathi, A.M., Stein, J.A. (1999). Psychosocial

2. predictors of current drug use, drug
problems, and physical drug dependencies in homeless women.
Addictive Behaviors, 24 (6), 801-
814.
This study was designed to show relationships between
psychosocial elements and use of the top
three most frequently used drugs among homeless women. The
impact of social networks on
adaptive and maladaptive coping mechanisms that influence
drug use were measured through a
version of the Jalowiec Coping Scale, part of a multi-item
instrument. Depression, current drug
use, drug problems and physical drug dependence were
assessed, in other parts of the
instrument. Current drug use was found to predict negative
social support, depression and less
use of positive coping strategies. Homelessness may diminish a
woman’s capability to establish
and maintain positive social support. This article was very
informative in that it gives clearly
identified stressors for homeless women and reasons for
maladaptation. Use in paper?
Hill, R. P., (1992). Homeless children: coping with material
losses. The Journal of Consumer Affairs, 26
(2), 274-287.
This one-year study investigated how various possessions and
fantasies serve as coping
mechanisms for homeless children. Many of the child

3. participants were resilient despite
homelessness because of positive role models. In addition,
though they had little material
possessions, these children often engaged in fantastical play
that portrayed one particular
“special” toy overcoming evil and other obstacles, then moving
on to a better place. The
methods used in this study are primarily interviewing and
observation, and were part of an
ethnography at a suburban homeless shelter; no psychometric
instruments were used. Though
the researcher’s background primarily involves an interest in
consumerism, this study is valuable
to this paper because it allows the reader to acquire background
information in the area of
coping from the perspective of homeless children. Overall the
article was quite simplistic, but
informative.
Horowitz, S. V., Boardman, S.K., Redlener, I. (1994).
Constructive conflict management and coping in
homeless children and adolescents. Journal of Social Issues, 50
(1), 85-98.
The purpose of their study was to explore the conflict
management and coping strategies of
homeless adolescents living in New York welfare hotels, as well
as, to assess the differences
between homeless children who adapt well academically and
those who do not. They also

4. investigated the difference in coping strategies between boys
and girls. A modified version of the
Ways of Coping Questionnaire was used to assess how children
coped with conflicts and other
problems. Some areas of the study seemed incomplete. For
example, though Math Academic
Achievement Test scores were used to measure competence, the
fact that these scores were
more readily available to the researchers does not necessarily
indicate overall academic
achievement, since some children do not have a high aptitude
for math. A 5-point scale was
created to determine how confident the participants were about
handling problems of various
size and severity. Researchers found that the worst problem
reported by participants was peer
conflict. The best method of handling this problem was found
to be third-party intervention.
Positive appraisal of conflict and problem solving were used
mostly by low academic achievers.
Boys were found to use distancing as a coping strategy, while
girls mostly used social support.
This article is useful in that it gives specific information about
the subscales used.
Kahn, M.W., Hannah, M., Hinkin, C., Montgomery, C., Pitz, D.
(1987). Psychopathology on the streets:
Psychological assessment of the homeless. Professional
Psychology: Research and Practice, 18
(6), 580-586.
This study was designed to establish objective methods of
assessing the mental health needs of

5. homeless populations. They also sought to establish rates of
mental disorder and substance
abuse of the homeless by using a structured demographic
interview questionnaire and the
Alcohol-Drug Use and Effects Survey to obtain information of
basic demographics,
psychopathology, and substance abuse. Subjects were homeless
persons from the meal line of a
soup kitchen. The researchers specifically noted that they
wanted to focus their study locations
where the homeless regularly gather, but should have attempted
to obtain subjects from more
than one site in order to make the study more comprehensive
and applicable to a wider range of
homeless persons. This study showed homelessness from the
male perspective, and the
assessment instruments used demonstrated that the majority of
this population used alcohol and
street drugs as a method of coping; which had led to trouble
with law enforcement for two-thirds
of them. In addition, over half of the population assessed had
what the researchers defined as
severe psychopathology. Use in paper?
Sullivan, G., Burnam, A., Koegel, P., Hollenberg, J. (2000).
Quality of life of homeless persons with mental
illness: Results from the Course-of-Homelessness Study.
Psychiatric Services, 51, 1135-1140.
This study set out to show that those homeless persons who
struggle with mental illness actually
have a better quality of life than those who do not. The basis of
this argument is that this

6. particular population often receives assistance in obtaining
housing and benefits through various
public mental health outreach programs. Using sections from
the Diagnostic Interview Schedule
(DIS), they found was that homeless persons with mental illness
had higher medium monthly
incomes, though those who were not mentally ill mostly
received comparable benefits such as
unemployment, AFDC, and food stamps. Quality of life was
measured both subjectively and
objectively (using a Likert scales). Despite having an income
advantage, the results of the quality
of life assessment given to the subjects suggest that the
mentally ill homeless population
experience more instances of victimization, subsistence
difficulty, poor physical functioning, and
generally believe they have a poorer quality of life than those
without mental illness. This
particularly shows homelessness from a male perspective, since
this study only included male
subjects. This article is useful in that it gives the reader a clear
exposure to various psychological
scales.
Tischler, V. (2009). ’I’m not coping, I’m Surviving’:
Understanding coping in a marginalised population.
Qualitative Research in Psychology, 6, 191-202.
This article explores the assessment of coping mechanisms and
the appraisal of standardized

7. measures of coping; particularly the focus is on homeless
mothers. The article expresses that
historically coping mechanisms have often been inaccurately
measured due to arbitrary
definitions of the word “cope”, as well as differentiation of
valid methods of assessment, and lack
of a longitudinal studies that assess these mechanisms over time
in various situations. Coping is
dynamic, changing with each person’s situation, experience and
perspective. Therefore,
behaviors typically seen as maladaptive could actually be
considered adaptive coping strategies
in marginalized populations, such as homeless mothers due to
their socialization. Qualitative
methods in the use of assessing coping strategies in this
population are advocated, and a
previous study of homeless mothers adjusting to living in a
hostel is reviewed. The strategies
most used by these mothers were reframing and engaging in
social support per thematic analysis
of interviews performed at the start of the first homeless event
and again after resettling. Lack
of providing a definition for coping at the time of interview
affected the answers given by
respondents. This article helps the reader understand why
revised measures are needed to
assess coping in homeless populations. More of a focus on
quantitative measurement would
have proven more beneficial to this paper.
Tischler, V. A., Vostanis, P. (2007). Homeless mothers: Is there
a relationship between coping strategies,
mental health and goal achievement?. Journal of Community &
Applied Social Psychology, 17,
85-102.

8. They performed a study to see how problem-focused and
emotion-focused coping strategies are
used by homeless mothers. The study also measured the mental
health and the primary goals
status of these women using the Family Crisis Oriented Personal
Evaluation Scales (F-COPES),
general health questionnaire and semi-structured interview. The
F-COPES was especially
instrumental in identifying coping behaviors in those
experiencing crisis, such as homelessness
and adjustment to shelter life. Use of the scales showed that the
most frequent coping strategies
utilized by this population were reframing of their current
situation and the acquirement of social
support, both problem-focused strategies. This research is in
line with a number of other studies
listed in this bibliography. This article is advantageous because
the scales used in the study gives
the reader an indication of the types of stressors homeless
mothers experience and their coping
strategies.
Toro, P. A., Wall, D.D. (1991). Research on homeless persons:
Diagnostic comparisons and practice
implications. Professional Psychology: Research and Practice,
22 (6), 479-488.
The researchers attempted to improve upon previous studies
done on homeless populations by
using three different methods of obtaining a homeless sample;
which they felt would provide a
broader cross-section. They sought to assess the existence and

9. depth of social networks and
social support in homeless populations, as well as, evaluate
mental health status and substance
abuse among this group. Sampling occurred over a full year to
allow for assessment in all four
seasons, though this proved unnecessary as it brought no
addition to the study. Psychiatric
disorders were assessed using the Diagnostic Interview
Schedule (DIS) and the Derogati revised
symptom checklist (SCL-90-R). The DSM-III was used to
measure substance abuse. The study
found that homeless groups had nearly the same size social
networks as nonhomeless groups.
The SCL-90-R, which was the self-inventory, revealed that the
highest estimate of mental illness;
which is why it is necessary to use more than one method in
assessment. Fifty-eight percent of
the subjects had been diagnosed with some form of mental
illness within the six months prior to
the study, which may indicate homelessness as a source of
mental illness. This study’s results
helped to dispel the myth that homeless person have no social
support resources, and indicates
that social support is a viable way of coping. It also shows that
maladaptation to homeless may
take the form of mental illness or drug abuse.
Wong, Y-L. I. (2000). Measurement properties of the Center for
Epidemiologic Studies – Depression
Scale in a homeless population. Psychological Assessment, 12
(1), 69-76.

10. This study proposed to evaluate the measurement properties in
the Center for Epidemiologic
Studies – Depression Scale (CES-D) by using it in a probability
sample of homeless adults residing
in Alameda County, California, a largely diverse community.
Subjects for this investigation were
chosen from a 2 year longitudinal study to document the
relationship between serious mental
illness and the course of homelessness. The results of the
investigation found that the CES-D had
relatively good internal consistency and reliability for use of
measuring the symptoms of
depression in the study participants. The investigation also
showed that depressive symptoms
decreased, as CES-D retest scores suggest, when a subject
obtained regular domicile. This
ultimately suggests that homelessness is a major source of
depression; a negative way of coping.
This article was excellent in explaining how a psychometric
scale is assessed.