Mental Illness Prevalence in Homeless Children

This assignment critically examines research articles focusing on the prevalence of mental illness in homeless children. Each article sheds light on different aspects of this complex issue, contributing to a deeper understanding of the challenges faced by homeless families and children. Despite some limitations, these articles are valuable for informing future research and guiding strategies aimed at improving the quality of life and mental well-being of homeless families and children.

Running head: QUALITATIVE RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Qualitative research methodology
Name of the student:
Name of the University:
Author’s note

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Introduction:
Homeless children and their families have high level of mental health problems because
of the risk factor of experiencing domestic violence, abuse, discrimination and family and social
disruptions in life. The aim of the proposal is to assess the prevalence of mental illness in
homeless children. To get more ideas about the factors leading to mental illness in this group,
this report analyzes the 4 different research articles. The critical examination of the qualitative
research article will help to find out the rigor in the research method and the strength and
weakness of the article. This will also help to identify the gap in study and find out future areas
of research on the topic.
Critical examination of qualitative research studies:
Article 1:
The article by Corrigan et al., (2015) conducted a community based participatory
research to find out the relevant risk associated with mental illness in homeless African
Americans and the cause of high mortality and morbidity rates in such families and children. The
survey based questionnaire mainly aimed to find out the health care needs of homeless people,
strategies needed to improve mental health services for this group and possible solution to
address the problem of mental illness in target group. Hence, by reviewing the research article,
the purpose of research is clearly understood as the author has given proper justification
regarding the purpose of the study along with small background information of the topic.
Secondly, the purpose of literature review in qualitative study is to find out what research has
been done on the topic and what areas still remains unclear regarding a phenomenon (Houghton

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et al. 2013). The author has adequately discussed about different research articles which talked
about health disparities in such group and serious mental illness in such people, however no gaps
were identified in the study. This has reduced the rigor of the research work.
In the study, the author has mainly used community based participatory research to
investigate about the topic of mental illness in homeless people, however no theoretical
framework has been used as a guidance for this research. The participants of the study included
African Americans who were homeless and with serious mental illness and they were recruited
by word of mouth information and flyers (Corrigan et al., 2015). Although no specific sampling
strategy was used, however the researcher considered about diversities in sample groups such as
people having physical illness, substance abuse or criminal records. In addition, the quality and
reliability of the research work is understood from the compliance with ethical procedures in
conducting research, This mainly includes taking informed consent from participants, taking
relevant permission from the Ethics Committee for conducting the research and many others
(Brinkmann, 2014).. However, the limitation of the article is that no such ethical considerations
were seen.
The data was collected by means of interview with participants; however the data
collected strategies are ambiguous. However, strategy has been discussed for thematic analysis
of interview transcript. The main finding from this study is that participants regarded medical
conditions as a concern in addressing mental issues. Barrier to health service also increased their
crisis and their problems of mental illness, homelessness and ethnic disparity were further
exacerbated by lack of basic needs fulfillment and stigma in society (Corrigan et al., 2015). In
case of health concerns for homeless children, health and safety of their children was the major
concern in family members. Symptoms of psychosis, cognitive decline, bipolar disorder and

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depression were common in children. On the whole, the study indicated that living on the street
is itself a traumatic experience for homeless families and children which further increases mental
health problems in them. The finding is consistent with the research by (Chambers et al., 2014)
which has explained about factors associated with poor mental health status in homeless women
with dependent children. Hence, the purpose of the study has been addressed however the article
lacks vigor because the credibility of the work has not been explained. Still, certain requirement
in promoting transferability of the work has been done as the researcher proposed developing
program to mitigate the barrier faced in accessing health services in this group
Article 2:
An article by Roze et al. (2016) highlighted the different mental disorders that occur
among homeless children. The site they have selected for conducting the research is Paris. In this
article, the researchers have rightly studied the social, individual as well as the environmental
and family characteristics that remains associated with behavioral and also emotional difficulties
in children who grows up in homeless conditions.
A very good feature of the article was that the researchers remain focused throughout the
article and did not seem to lose focus at any point (Welch et al., 2014). It was seen that the article
did not have a separate literature review section, which might have been a negative point.
However, this shortcoming was overcome by a wide array of discussion in the introduction
section, which provided a clear overview of the different issues faced by homeless families and
how their children get affected. In the section. They have given a good amount of information on
the general risk factors for psychiatric difficulties in children of homeless families which created

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a pathways for the readers to develop their interests for the topic and made them look forward to
the research.
The authors have also provided a very detailed approach in discussing the methodology
that they have applied to collect their information, which they wanted. All the processes have
been discussed in small paragraphs under appropriate headings making it easier for the readers to
understand without creating any place for confusion. They have conducted the Strength and
Difficulties Questionnaire [SDQ]) o their families and also determined the family socio-
demographic characteristics, residential mobility, and parents’ and children’s physical and
mental health. Moreover another important step which they took is that they also interviewed the
children so that they can learn about their perception of living arrangements, friendships and
school experiences. The answers helped the authors to develop ideas about the children (Ryan,
Coughlan and cogin, 2007). Knowing perceptions of both families and children is indeed
noteworthy as it enhanced the credibility and strength of the research. Linear regression
framework was used for the purpose of statistical analysis.
The sample was of 343 children ranging from 4 to 13. The regression analysis helped in
getting the results, which stated that homeless children had higher SDQ total scores in
comparison to children in general population. Moreover a connection was established between
the children’s emotional and behavioral difficulties with that of parents’ region of birth,
residential mobility, children’s health , overweight, the child’s sleeping habits, , the child’s
dislike of the family’s accommodation, mother’s suicide risk, children’s experiences of bullying
and others. They have rightly been able to assess every important connection which policy
makers or other researchers can use them in their own work and thereby be benefitted.

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One of an interesting feature of this article is that beside jotting the limitations, they have
wonderfully established the strength of the paper. They have stated that the multicultural families
they have interviewed has helped in covering a huge domain of participants. Moreover the
discussion segment is quite vast where they have discussed each of the implications in details
along with the various risk factors, consequences and others. Such an expanded overview is
indeed noteworthy (Chambers et al., 2014). Moreover, the article also ends with a proper
conclusion part that also contains recommendations about how to make lives of such children
better. Therefore the article is one of a very high quality which can be used by any readers who
want to research on the topic.
Article 3:
Another research study is important to highlight about the challenges faced by homeless
people with mental illness. Past studies have shown that lack of housing contributes to traumatic
experience for homeless people and contribute to mental illness. Kirst et al., (2014) aimed to
conduct a study with homeless adults experiencing mental illness participating in housing
randomized controlled trial in Canada and the purpose was to find out their perceptive on how
hope and housing played a role in their recovery from mental illness. Hence, with this statement,
the core background of study, the phenomenon of interest and the aim of the research is clearly
understood.
To get answers to the research question, this study conducted in-depth interview with
participants in Toronto, Canada. The rigour in the research work is seen by the use of purposve
sampling method to recruit participants for the study. It is a subjective way of recruiting
participants for research where the intention is to get target sample very close to the objective of

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the study. The advantage of using such method in research is that it increases the generalizability
of the study (Etikan et al., 2016). Hence, in the context of the research article, purposive
sampling method helped to select participants from the larger RCT sample and to represent them
across gender and ethnicity. The validity of the research work is also clearly understood by
ethical method of recruiting participants in the study. In accordance with ethical considerations
in research, the researcher invited participants to the interview and informed them about the
purpose of study. Informed consent were also taken from participants regarding audio-recorded
interview (Marshall & Rossman, 2014).
The data collection, data analysis and study findings are the most critical elements that
determines the validity of the research work and their applicability in real setting. Kirst et al.,
(2014), enhanced the data analysis process by including peer researchers who had training and
experience in conducting in-depth interviews. All this reflects the researcher used all strategies to
increase the rigor and quality of the research work. The in depth-interview mainly collected data
on history of homelessness and mental health issues, experience with mental health and social
service and future hopers for recovery. The rigor in the qualitative interview data was maintained
by using coding process and classifying them into common categories. The researcher discussed
about the approach used to ensure reliability and this includes double coding interview
transcripts. The strength of the article is its results as it gave the indication that housing related
intervention had positive impact on vision for recovery in participants. Participants also reported
that stable housing helped them to maintain positive relationship with their children too. This
improved behavior and health of their children (Kirst et al., 2014). Secondly, housing scheme
rebuild their self-esteem. However, the only weakness in this study is that it has not evaluated
long-term impacts of housing and it was based only on point-in-time observations.

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Article 4:
In case of children living out of their homes, their mental health needs is seriously
compromised. They develop not only language and temperament problems, but also cognitive
disability. Jani, (2011) defined the aim of the study which was to explore about needs of
homeless women with children in transition housing. The qualitative research approach was used
to explore the experience of homeless participants in transition living facilities. The author
validated the study by women having poor socioeconomic background. The rigour in the study
was evident from the inclusion criteria and exclusion criteria and complying with the ethical
procedures. The emotional and behavioral difficulties were assessed by using Child Behavioral
Checklist. Ethical clearance was also taken for the research. The quality of the study is also
enhanced by the used of grounded theory approach to conduct the research work.
The interview with participants revealed that lack of personal support, dissolution of
relationships was the major cause of homelessness and their difficulties in life were further
exacerbated by diagnosis of serious mental illness. Hence, mental illness in mothers contributed
to behavioral problems and mental issues in children too. This also limited their ability to engage
in preventive care (Jani, 2011). Hence, the research finding gave wide implications for actions to
improve health related vulnerabilities in homeless women and children. The limitation in the
study is the small size, which may affect the validity of the study. However, the research gives
direction to eliminate the pathway to homelessness in community.
Conclusion:
The report presented the critical examination of research article related to the prevalence
of mental illness in homeless children. Each article contributed to different dimensions of issues

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and challenges faced by homeless people. Despite little weakness, the articles are important to
plan future research work and implement strategies to improve quality of life and mental health
of homeless families and children.

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Reference
Brinkmann, S. (2014). Interview. In Encyclopedia of Critical Psychology (pp. 1008-1010).
Springer New York.
Chambers, C., Chiu, S., Scott, A. N., Tolomiczenko, G., Redelmeier, D. A., Levinson, W., &
Hwang, S. W. (2014). Factors associated with poor mental health status among homeless
women with and without dependent children. Community mental health journal, 50(5),
553-559.
Chambers, C., Chiu, S., Scott, A. N., Tolomiczenko, G., Redelmeier, D. A., Levinson, W., &
Hwang, S. W. (2014). Factors associated with poor mental health status among homeless
women with and without dependent children. Community mental health journal, 50(5),
553-559.
Corrigan, P., Pickett, S., Kraus, D., Burks, R., & Schmidt, A. (2015). Community-based
participatory research examining the health care needs of African Americans who are
homeless with mental illness. Journal of health care for the poor and underserved, 26(1),
119.
Etikan, I., Musa, S. A., & Alkassim, R. S. (2016). Comparison of convenience sampling and
purposive sampling. American Journal of Theoretical and Applied Statistics, 5(1), 1-4.
Houghton, C., Casey, D., Shaw, D., & Murphy, K. (2013). Rigour in qualitative case-study
research. Nurse researcher, 20(4), 12-17.

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Jani, U. B. (2011). A Qualitative Analysis of Homeless Women with Children in Transitional
Housing: What Are Their Needs?.
Kirst, M., Zerger, S., Harris, D. W., Plenert, E., & Stergiopoulos, V. (2014). The promise of
recovery: narratives of hope among homeless individuals with mental illness participating
in a Housing First randomised controlled trial in Toronto, Canada. BMJ open, 4(3),
e004379.
Marshall, C., & Rossman, G. B. (2014). Designing qualitative research. Sage publications.
Roze, M., Vandentorren, S., Vuillermoz, C., Chauvin, P., & Melchior, M. (2016). Emotional and
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Ryan, F., Coughlan, M., & Cronin, P. (2007). Step-by-step guide to critiquing research. Part 2:
Qualitative research. British journal of nursing, 16(12), 738-744.
Welch-Lazoritz, M. L., Whitbeck, L. B., & Armenta, B. E. (2015). Characteristics of mothers
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