“There’s like no support system”: the life course stories of women with children about growing up, becoming mothers, and becoming homeless

ABSTRACT

The current study reports on a narrative analysis of the stories of women (N = 20, 40% African American) with children who have been or are currently homeless with a focus on the women’s experiences during childhood, becoming homeless, and becoming mothers, and for some, exiting homelessness. We employed the life course theoretical framework to identify six themes across two developmental periods, pre-adulthood and adulthood: (1) constant fragmentation, (2) sudden fragmentation, (3) constrained agency, (4) learned substance abuse, (5) independence aborted, and (6) without a net. All reported childhoods characterized by disruption, although for some this only occurred after a lifechanging family event such as parental divorce or death. The majority described entering abusive relationships as adults and all became pregnant before the age of 20. Lacking family and friends able to help, they found themselves with limited economic options and often self-medicating through substance abuse that had been modeled in childhood and/or reinforced in adulthood. Findings underscore the need for rapid re-housing using a trauma-informed housing first model. Certain events in childhood, specifically parental divorce or death, are critical junctures for homeless prevention services. Further, evidence of reproductive coercion indicates that contraception, family planning, and economic supports may be critical targets for homeless prevention among women, as all of our participants reported an unplanned pregnancy by the age of 20 and poverty, often due to lack of education and job skills, rendering them dependent on male partners and abuse relationships.

KEYWORDS:

• Homelessness
• women
• trauma
• reproductive health

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes on contributors

Courtney Cronley, PhD, MSSW, is an associate professor in the College of Social Work at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. She earned her master's and doctoral degrees in social work at the University of Tennessee. After completing post-doctoral training at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, she earned tenure at The University of Texas at Arlington. Her research centers on women and youth experiencing homelessness and how the built environment contributes to risks for homelessness and health disparities.

Shamsun Nahar, PhD, MSW, MSS, is an Assistant Professor in Social Work department of Texas Woman's University. She earned her PhD in Social Work from the University of Texas at Arlington. She also holds two master degrees, MSW from the University of Texas at Arlington and MSS in Sociology from the University of Dhaka, Bangladesh. Her research interests include reproductive health of critically disadvantaged and underrepresented women, such as homeless women, disaster affected women, and gender discriminated women.

Kris Hohn, PhD, MSSW, is an Assistant Professor of Social Work at the University of North Carolina Wilmington. She earned her masters and doctorate at The University of Texas at Arlington. Her research involves exploring the impact of stigma and trauma on the health of vulnerable populations across the lifespan and the role of social workers as social justice and policy advocates.