Experiencing things like domestic violence, discrimination, high levels of violent crime in a community, or chronic poverty as a child could make a person more likely to become homeless as an adult. And the more a person experiences, the higher the risk could be.
That's according to research by University of Cincinnati College of Allied Health Sciences Assistant Professor Edson Chipalo, published in the journal Child Indicators Research recently.
Chipalo looked at data from roughly 1,000 people who have experienced homelessness and were tracked by the National Survey of Children's Health. Many of those individuals had experienced multiple adverse childhood experiences, often called ACEs.
"The more ACEs a child experienced, the more likely they are to be homeless," Chipalo says.
The study controlled for nine factors, like socioeconomic status, geography, and parental employment. It considered the biological, social, and psychological impacts of nine categories of trauma on people under 18.
Chipalo says his findings add to a growing body of evidence that could help guide both government policy and therapeutic approaches to addressing trauma. He says prevention of the kinds of trauma he studied and early intervention after trauma has been experienced are key.
"We want the practitioners who are working with those children who have experienced adverse experiences as well as homelessness to understand these issues," he said. "How can we improve their practice?"
Chipalo will present his research at several conferences this summer. He also says he's applying his research on the impact of trauma to a new project. He's working on collecting data from communities of refugees and immigrants who came to Greater Cincinnati from African nations. The region is home to people who have come from countries like Burundi, Mauritania, Senegal, and others.
Chipalo says adverse childhood experiences present special challenges for people coming to a new culture to escape war, extreme poverty, or government oppression.
That's something he has familiarity with. Chipalo, who came to the U.S. from Zambia, says he experienced multiple traumas growing up.
"I have been an orphan," he says. "I've experienced poverty. I witnessed domestic violence... these things have a lot of impact. I want to contribute to the knowledge of the risks associated with adverse childhood experiences."
Chipalo says that could help refugees and immigrants better adjust to the huge changes that come with their journeys.
"Most of the time we just focus on, 'Let's find them a job, employment,' and that's it," he says. "That is where my research comes in, to unravel those experiences and help find the intervention that can help them effectively integrate into the culture and contribute economically, socially, culturally in the United States."
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