Empowering Homeless Youth in Transitional Living Programs

225 Pages·2016·2.41 MB·English

Loyola University Chicago
Loyola eCommons
Dissertations Theses and Dissertations
2014
Empowering Homeless Youth in Transitional Living Programs: A
Transformative Mixed Methods Approach to Understanding Their
Transition to Adulthood
Ashley Etzel Ausikaitis
Loyola University Chicago
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Ausikaitis, Ashley Etzel, "Empowering Homeless Youth in Transitional Living Programs: A Transformative
Mixed Methods Approach to Understanding Their Transition to Adulthood" (2014). Dissertations. 1247.
https://ecommons.luc.edu/luc_diss/1247
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LOYOLA UNIVERSITY CHICAGO

EMPOWERING HOMELESS YOUTH IN TRANSITIONAL LIVING PROGRAMS:
A TRANSFORMATIVE MIXED METHODS APPROACH TO UNDERSTANDING
THEIR TRANSITION TO ADULTHOOD

A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO
THE FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL
IN CANDIDACY FOR THE DEGREE OF
DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY

PROGRAM IN SCHOOL PSYCHOLOGY

BY
ASHLEY ETZEL AUSIKAITIS
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS
AUGUST 2014
Copyright by Ashley Etzel Ausikaitis, 2014
All rights reserved.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to take this opportunity to thank my dissertation chair and advisor,
Dr. Martha Ellen Wynne, for her unflagging support and mentorship. Thank you for
giving me the opportunity to become a leader in the field and believing in my talents.
Also deserving of gratitude are the other members of my dissertation committee, Dr.
David Shriberg and Dr. Amy Dworsky. Thank you Dr. Shriberg for convincing me that I
was researcher-material on the first day of graduate school, helping me develop my social
justice focus and giving me opportunities to try out many different roles over the past six
years. As she is a leader in the field of research on social policy, foster youth and
homelessness, it is a privilege to have Dr. Dworsky on my committee, and I appreciate
her guidance on this project.
I would also like to thank my parents, Deborah Etzel and Joseph Ausikaitis for
their constant love and care. Thank you to my mother, who has always provided me with
emotional support, for planting that slightly guilty feeling that I should be working at a
young age and for always reminding me what I am capable of. Special thanks go to my
father for always checking on the percentage of completion of my project and for helping
me with auditing, formatting, spreadsheets and editing. Acknowledgement goes to my
colleagues at Loyola, particularly those in the GDDD writing group (Poonam Desai,
Sofia Flores, and Alison Alves), for providing motivation and encouragement. Thanks to
the many members of the Home School Community Research team for providing the
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manpower and energy essential to our activist research agenda. Thank you also to my
professors at Loyola – particularly Gina Coffee, Dennis Simon, Lynne Golomb and Pam
Fenning, for giving me the tools to complete this undertaking and become an effective
school psychologist.
This dissertation is dedicated to the youth participants who shared their stories and their
time with me. Thank you also to William Bulka, Alexis Allegra, Joe Hankey, and
Alejandro Mendez for welcoming me as a member of the transitional living program
communities and for giving me the opportunity to get to know these fabulous and
inspiring young people. This dissertation is also dedicated to Adam Charles Knoerr
(1979-2012), who blessed my life tremendously and brought so much positivity into this
world. His support and admiration for my work gave me strength to continue even in
dark times. Adam’s life and life’s work have inspired me to dedicate my career to
advocating for marginalized and exceptional children and youth.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................................... iii

LIST OF TABLES ........................................................................................................... viii

LIST OF FIGURES ........................................................................................................... ix

ABSTRACT ....................................................................................................................... xi

CHAPTER I: INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................ 1
Homeless Youth and Emerging Adulthood ..................................................................... 1
Definitions ..................................................................................................................... 1
Prevalence ..................................................................................................................... 2
Laws that Protect this Population .................................................................................... 3
Runaway and Homeless Youth Act .............................................................................. 3
McKinney-Vento Act .................................................................................................... 4
Foster Care Law ............................................................................................................ 4
Purpose of Research ......................................................................................................... 6
Current State of the Field .............................................................................................. 6
Contribution of Study ................................................................................................... 8

CHAPTER II: LITERATURE REVIEW ......................................................................... 10
Roadmap for Literature Review ..................................................................................... 10
Societal Injustices and Homelessness ............................................................................ 11
Structural Risk Factors that Can Lead to Homelessness ............................................... 13
Poverty ........................................................................................................................ 14
Social and Cultural Capital ......................................................................................... 15
Minority Status ............................................................................................................ 16
Intersectionality ........................................................................................................... 18
Individual Risk Factors that Can Lead to Homelessness ............................................... 20
Family ......................................................................................................................... 21
Parenting Style ............................................................................................................ 21
Childhood Abuse ........................................................................................................ 23
Foster Care System ..................................................................................................... 25
Risk and Protective Factors in Life on the Street .......................................................... 26
Peers ............................................................................................................................ 26
Mental Health .............................................................................................................. 29
Substance Abuse ......................................................................................................... 30
Criminality .................................................................................................................. 32
Sexual Health .............................................................................................................. 33
Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity ..................................................................... 34
Physiological Health ................................................................................................... 36
Outcome Research on Services for Homeless Youth .................................................... 37
Street Outreach ............................................................................................................ 38
Emergency Assistance ................................................................................................ 39
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Case Management ....................................................................................................... 40
Basic Centers .............................................................................................................. 41
Family Reunification Therapy .................................................................................... 43
Housing Based Transitional Living Programs ............................................................ 46
Sanctuary Model ......................................................................................................... 48
Looking Forward ........................................................................................................... 52
Summary of Literature ................................................................................................ 52
Purpose of this Study .................................................................................................. 53

CHAPTER III: METHODS .............................................................................................. 55
Research Questions ........................................................................................................ 56
Transformative-Emancipatory Paradigm ....................................................................... 57
Social Justice Theory ..................................................................................................... 58
Positioning of the Author ............................................................................................... 59
Mixed Methodology ....................................................................................................... 60
Procedure ....................................................................................................................... 62
Data Collection ........................................................................................................... 63
Sampling Strategy ....................................................................................................... 64
Partnering Site Descriptions ....................................................................................... 65
Focus Group Participants ............................................................................................ 67
Interview Participants ................................................................................................. 68
Qualitative Measures ..................................................................................................... 68
Focus Groups .............................................................................................................. 68
Interviews .................................................................................................................... 69
Quantitative Measures ................................................................................................... 70
Standardized Measures ............................................................................................... 71
Survey ......................................................................................................................... 76

CHAPTER IV: RESULTS ................................................................................................ 79
Initial Quantitative Analysis Phase ................................................................................ 79
Initial Qualitative Analysis Phase .................................................................................. 79
Integrated Analysis Phase .............................................................................................. 81
Reliability and Validation .............................................................................................. 82
Focus Group Data .......................................................................................................... 82
Services ....................................................................................................................... 83
Staff Support ............................................................................................................... 86
Environment ................................................................................................................ 88
Sanctuary Model ......................................................................................................... 91
Wants .......................................................................................................................... 95
Focus Group Summary .................................................................................................. 97
Interview Data ................................................................................................................ 98
Risk Factors .............................................................................................................. 100
Protective Factors ...................................................................................................... 108
Time 1 Goals ............................................................................................................. 113
Time 2 Goals ............................................................................................................. 120
Completed Goals ....................................................................................................... 121
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Goals Not Yet Achieved ........................................................................................... 121
Terminated Goals ...................................................................................................... 122
New Goals ................................................................................................................. 123
Quantitative Results ..................................................................................................... 124
Demographics ........................................................................................................... 124
Community Scale ...................................................................................................... 126
Adulthood Scale ........................................................................................................ 128
Occupational Self-Assessment .................................................................................. 131
Achenbach System of Empirically Based Assessment Adult Self Report ............... 134
Quantitative Integration of Results .............................................................................. 154
Qualitative Integration of Results ................................................................................ 156
Integrated Protective Factors .................................................................................... 156
Integrated Risk Factors ............................................................................................. 159

CHAPTER V: DISCUSSION ......................................................................................... 164
Personal Response of the Author ................................................................................. 164
Summary of Findings ................................................................................................... 165
Policy Implications ...................................................................................................... 170
Program Implications ................................................................................................... 177
Limitations of this Study .............................................................................................. 179
Recommendations for Future Research ....................................................................... 182

APPENDIX A: INTERVIEW CONSENT FORM ......................................................... 185

APPENDIX B: FOCUS GROUP CONSENT SCRIPT .................................................. 188

APPENDIX C: FOCUS GROUP PROTOCOL ............................................................. 191

APPENDIX D: INTERVIEW PROTOCOL .................................................................. 194

APPENDIX E: SURVEY ............................................................................................... 197

REFERENCES ............................................................................................................... 200

VITA ............................................................................................................................. 211

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LIST OF TABLES

Table 1. Agency Descriptions ........................................................................................... 65
Table 2. Research Questions and Corresponding Measures ............................................. 77
Table 3. Focus Group Participant Demographics ............................................................. 83
Table 4. Interview Participant Demographics .................................................................. 99
Table 5. T1 Goals ............................................................................................................ 114
Table 6. Participant Goal Progress Summary ................................................................. 120
Table 7. Gender Frequencies .......................................................................................... 125
Table 8. Race Frequencies .............................................................................................. 125
Table 9. Participant Age and Length of Stay at TLP in Months ..................................... 125
Table 10. Community Scale Descriptive Statistics ......................................................... 128
Table 11. Adulthood Scale Descriptive Statistics ........................................................... 131
Table 12. Descriptive Statistics for the OSA Competence and Value Scales ................ 132
Table 13. ASEBA Syndrome Scale Descriptive Statistics ............................................. 136
Table 14. ASEBA Adaptive Functioning Scale Descriptive Statistics ........................... 147
Table 15. ASEBA Substance Use Scale Descriptive Statistics ...................................... 149
Table 16. ASEBA Other Drug Use Descriptive Statistics by Agency and Time ........... 149
Table 17. ASEBA DSM-Oriented Scale Descriptive Statistics ...................................... 151
Table 18. Gain Scores on Quantitative Measures ........................................................... 155
Table 19. Gain Scores and Goals .................................................................................... 156
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LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1. The Ecological Perspective ............................................................................... 13
Figure 2. Concurrent and Sequential Complementary Design ......................................... 63
Figure 3. Interview Themes ............................................................................................ 100
Figure 4. Community Scale Scores by Participant and Time ......................................... 126
Figure 5. Community Scale Scores Individual Time Analysis ....................................... 127
Figure 6. Adulthood Scale Scores by Participant and Time ........................................... 129
Figure 7. Adulthood Scale Individual Time Analysis .................................................... 130
Figure 8. OSA Competence Scores by Participant and Time ......................................... 132
Figure 9. OSA Total Value Scores by Participant and Time .......................................... 133
Figure 10. OSA Total Competence Scale Individual Time Analysis ............................. 133
Figure 11. OSA Total Values Scale Individual Time Analysis ...................................... 134
Figure 12. Anxiety/Depression Symptom Scores by Participant and Time ................... 137
Figure 13. Withdrawn Symptom Scores by Participant and Time ................................. 137
Figure 14. Thought Problems Symptom Scores by Participant and Time ...................... 138
Figure 15. Attention Symptom Scores by Participant and Time .................................... 138
Figure 16. Aggression Symptom Scores by Participant and Time ................................. 139
Figure 17. Rule Breaking Symptom Scores by Participant and Time ............................ 139
Figure 18. Internalizing Symptom Scores by Participant and Time ............................... 140
Figure 19. Externalizing Symptom Scores by Participant and Time .............................. 140
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