Families' housing experiences within contexts of stress

ABSTRACT

Experiences of homelessness and housing instability have implications for child and family well-being across the life course. In this three-paper dissertation, I explore a variety of housing experiences for families within additionally stressful contexts. First, I review the existing literature regarding infants' and toddlers' experiences of homelessness, a consequential developmental time period, and a critical gap in homelessness scholarship. Second, using qualitative analyses, I investigate families' descriptions of their experiences of housing instability and homelessness in addition to experiencing the incarceration of a parent, addressing family-identified challenges and supports. Lastly, I address relations between parents' well-being and children's stress within families living doubled-up during the COVID-19 pandemic, comparing across doubled-up status for parent mental health symptoms, emotions, behaviors, and employment, and child stress and adaptive behaviors. Following the three papers, I discuss implications for future research, policy, and practice within the field of family homelessness and housing instability. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)