ACADEMICS ON LEARNED HELPLESSNESS AND THE HOMELESS

I found this article on EBSCO via the UA:


Hope in homeless people: a phenomenological study
Mary Partis Public Health and Primary Care Unit, City University, London, UK

Primary Health Care Research and Development 2003; 4: 9–19

(excerpt)


To be without a home is to be placed in a position of
insecurity (financial, emotional and social), and
vulnerability with no permanent claim to individual
space and no sense of being able to build on
the emotional foundation a sense of home provides
(Bentley, 1994). Trapped by a lack of resources
homeless people profoundly experience society’s
inequalities, which has consequences for prioritizing
goals. In a qualitative study (Newman, 1993)
homeless women experienced feelings of giving
up, self-blame and helplessness. Goodman et al.,
(1991) who proposed that learned helplessness is
a highly prevalent psychological state among
homeless people who frequently experience, poverty,
eviction and abuse of all types, has reiterated
this view.

Here's the Goodman citation:

Goodman, L., Saxe, L. and Harvey, H. 1991: Homelessness as
psychological trauma. American Psychologist 46, 11: 1219–
1225.

Another article from EBSCO:

Homelessness as psychological trauma: : Broadening Perspectives,
By: Goodman, Lisa, Saxe, Leonard, Harvey, Mary,
American Psychologist, 0003066X, Nov 91, Vol. 46, Issue 11

(excerpts)

...among those who are not psychologically traumatized by becoming homeless, the ongoing condition of homelessness—living in shelters with such attendant stressors as the possible loss of safety, predictability, and control—may undermine and finally erode coping capabilities and precipitate symptoms of psychological trauma.

Behaviors indicative of learned helplessness may be consequences of homelessness because, like other traumas, becoming homeless frequently renders people unable to control their daily lives. Homeless people, whether they live in the streets, in cars, in shelters, in welfare hotels, or in other temporary accommodations, experience daily assaults on their sense of personal control. They may depend on help from others to fulfill their most basic needs, such as eating, sleeping, keeping clean, guarding personal belongings, and caring for children. Although the poverty that precedes most homelessness (Rossi, 1990) is itself likely to engender feelings of homelessness and depression (e.g., Holzer et al., 1986), homelessness, by adding a new dimension of deprivation, is likely to greatly exacerbate these feelings.


Although researchers have not yet directly investigated the extent of learned helplessness among homeless people, they have documented high rates of depression, a component of learned helplessness, among the homeless. For example, in Breakey et al.'s (1989) survey of homeless people in Baltimore, affective disorders were the most frequently identified DSM–III–R Axis I diagnoses other than substance abuse. In a study of homeless women in New York City, D'Ercole and Struening (1990) reported that on a commonly used measure of depression, their respondents obtained a mean score well above that used as a cutoff for clinical depression. These findings are not proof that homelessness leads to depression, as depression has also been shown to precede homelessness (see Breakey et al., 1989; Koegel, Burnam, & Farr, 1988). However, they are consistent with the theory that becoming homeless and living in a shelter can exacerbate a person's sense of helplessness and thus heighten the risk of depression.


Learned helplessness theory suggests that the real absence of control in the lives of homeless people eventually can engender a generalized passivity. The ongoing experience of helplessness may lead to an apparent unwillingness on the part of some homeless people to fight for themselves or to utilize the often meagre services available to them. Some may come to view their daily difficulties with apparent indifference, as if they do not expect to move into better circumstances, whereas others may become overly dependent on social service or mental health professionals. In either case, as the stressors inherent in being homeless persist, feelings of helplessness and the passivity these feelings engender can become entrenched and pervasive (Flannery, 1987).