NCJ Number
209575
Journal
Aggression and Violent Behavior Volume: 10 Issue: 2 Dated: January-February 2005 Pages: 129-152
Date Published
January 2005
Length
24 pages
Annotation
This literature review examines the role of violence and aggression in the lives of children in homeless families, with attention to possible links among family violence and isolation, children's aggression, and children's social isolation and rejection.
Abstract
The primary thesis explored in the review is that violence and aggression are causes and/or consequences of many of the problems experienced by homeless children, including their problems in social interactions. The review first addresses the various ways in which homeless children may be exposed to violence, with the most obvious source of exposure being, having to live in an environment where aggression is the common means of settling disputes. Severe aggression, for example, has been documented in over 60 percent of runaway and homeless adolescents. Another factor in the exposure of homeless children to violence is the frequency with which their mothers have been physically or sexually abused. The discussion of homeless children and their exposure to violence also considers links between violence and social isolation. Another section of the review considers the diverse consequences for children of violence and aggression. Topics addressed in this section are violence and maternal isolation and the consequences for children, parenting problems as mediators of negative consequences for children, and social isolation and rejection of homeless children. A review of theories of sources of aggression among homeless children focuses on social learning theories, attribution theory, developmental theory, and resilience theory. Other topics discussed in this review are whether homelessness and extreme poverty among housed children have different effects on children's risk for violence, directions for intervention, and directions for future research. 104 references