Are Attitudes Towards Mental Health Help-seeking Associated With Service Use Among Homeless

ViewPDF

SSM - Population Health

Under a Creative Commons license

Open access

Highlights

•: Formerly homeless young adults experienced meaning stress and mental distress.
•: Mental health assistance-seeking intentions were associated with higher mental distress.
•: Young adults may need additional social support coping with stressful life events.
•: Interventions promoting well-beingness for formerly homeless immature adults are needed.

Abstract

We examine the challenges formerly homeless young adults (FHYAs) face after they transition out of homelessness. Considering the adversities FHYAs face, it is unclear how transitioning to stable housing may affect their mental well-being or what types of stressors they may experience once housed. This study investigates the social surroundings young adults meet in their transition to stable housing and examines trauma and social coping predictors of mental health symptoms in a sample of FHYAs to generate new knowledge for better intervening to meet their needs. Information were obtained from REALYST, a national research collaborative comprised of interdisciplinary researchers investigating young adults' (ages 18–26) experiences with homelessness. Cross-exclusive data for 1426 young adults experiencing homelessness were collected from 2016 to 2017 across seven cities in the United States (i.eastward., Los Angeles, Phoenix, Denver, Houston, San Jose, St. Louis, and New York Metropolis). The analytical sub-sample for this report consisted of 173 FHYAs who were housed in their own apartment (via voucher from Housing and Urban Development or another source) or in transitional living programs during their participation in the study. Ordinary To the lowest degree Squares regression was used to examine the influence of trauma and social coping strategies on indicators of mental well-existence. Findings indicated that higher adversity scores and college mental health help-seeking intentions were positively associated with higher levels of stress, psychological distress, and depression severity. Higher level of social coping was associated with lower levels of depression severity. Logistic regression results showed that young adults with college adversity scores had college odds of reporting clinical levels of post-traumatic symptoms. The study implications suggest that FHYAs who transition to stable housing continue to need support navigating and coping with stressful life events; and interventions that help FHYAs develop strong networks of social supports are needed to promote positive mental well-being.

Keywords

Formerly homeless young adults

Housing

Social determinants of wellness

Mental well-being

Social coping

Adverse childhood experiences

Trauma

Cited by (0)