The variation in family background amongst young homeless shelter users in Denmark

Abstract

This article analyses variation in the family background of young homeless people in a cohort of young Danes. The study is based on administrative data for individuals who were 18 years old in 2007 and their parents. Homelessness is measured by shelter use over a five-year period. Data also cover education, employment, mental illness, substance abuse problems and placement outside home in childhood for the young persons, and education, employment, civil status, mental illness and substance abuse problems for their parents. A cluster analysis identifies two groups, each comprising half of the young shelter users. In the first group, social marginalisation is transmitted between generations, as most parents have low education and mental illness or substance abuse problems, and are unemployed. In contrast, the young people in the second group come from wider socioeconomic backgrounds, with few of their parents having mental illness or substance abuse problems. These young people develop psychosocial problems and become homeless without strong predictors from their family background. Amongst the young shelter users from families with severe social problems a higher share are in the Not in Education, Employment or Training group. They also have more shelter stays, compared to young shelter users from families with fewer social problems.

Keywords:

• youth homelessness
• shelter use
• family background
• mental illness
• substance abuse
• cluster analysis

Acknowledgements

Data were provided by the Social Appeals Board, Statens Serum Institut (SSI), The Psychiatric Central Research Register and Statistics Denmark. I particularly thank Professor Eoin O’Sullivan, Trinity College Dublin; Ireland, Professor Ingrid Sahlin, Lund University, Sweden; Senior Researcher Jeanette Østergaard, SFI – The Danish National Center for Social Research; Dr Nicholas Pleace, University of York, UK; Professor Margaretha Järvinen, University of Copenhagen, Denmark and Dr Volker Busch-Geertsema, GISS (Gesellschaft für innovative Sozialforschung und Sozialplanung), Bremen, Germany, for valuable comments on the article.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Danish Council for Independent Research, Social Sciences.