Survival on the Streets: Prosocial and Moral Behaviors Among Food Insecure Homeless Youth in Adelaide, South Australia

ABSTRACT

This paper examines prosocial and moral behaviours that underpin survival strategies and food acquisition practices among a sample of food insecure homeless youth in Adelaide, Australia. The mixed method study included a study involving in-depth interviews about food procurement and food sharing practices with homeless youth (n = 15) aged 15–24 years. Interviewees demonstrated proactive prosocial behaviours including sharing food, information, begging cooperatively and protecting vulnerable others. Such behaviours may be representative of the prosocial necessities for some homeless youth. Two categories of data on moral frameworks underpinning food acquisition were found. The first category included individuals who morally disengage–that is, they revise their moral values in order to survive. The second category were those who will not be morally compromised. Homeless youth displayed modes of moral decision-making similar to domiciled adolescents, including attention to matters of justice, care of others and unselfishness. Prosocial behaviours and flexible moral choices may be a consequence of and response to food insecurity and be a useful theoretical behavioural framework for explaining unorthodox food acquisition strategies to address street food insecurity. The data provides a valuable contribution to the food security field through 'real' life insight and will be of interest to professionals working with homeless youth and planning interventions to build food security amongst vulnerable populations.

KEYWORDS:

• Food insecurity
• prosocial behaviour
• moral disengagement
• homeless youth