HOMELESS WOMEN: THEIR PERCEPTIONS ABOUT THEIR FAMILIES OF ORIGIN (ABUSE).
Contributors: Oregon Health Sciences University.
Published: 1993
Number of pages: 219
Subjects: Health Sciences, Nursing.; Women's Studies.; Sociology, Individual and Family Studies.
Description: The purpose of this study was to examine descriptively the families of origin of women who were or who had been homeless. The research was done using a descriptive qualitative research design, specifically intensive interviewing. A feminist framework guided the research process. Lofland and Lofland's (1984) conceptualization of units of social settings was used as the basis for analysis of the data. The sample consisted of 20 women who had been homeless. All research participants were in a women's support group or were involved in counseling. Twelve of the women were interviewed individually. Six of those 12 women and an additional 8 women were later interviewed as part of two focus groups. Data were analyzed descriptively for themes. Themes within each social unit included: (a) Meanings--homelessness, home, family of origin, lack of connectedness, and being without; (b) Practices--male privilege, transiency, and abuse issues; (c) Episodes--loss of family and being homeless; (d) Roles--traditional female-male, scapegoating, and little adult; and (e) Relationships--mother/daughter, father/daughter, and sibling. Within the mother/daughter relationships social unit, the dominant themes were betrayal, devaluation of self, enmeshment, emotional void, longing for, emotional cutoff, and destructive coalitions. The themes from the father/daughter relationships social unit were abuse issues, differential treatment, idealized father figure, and banished daughter. The themes that emerged from the sibling relationships were sibling childcare responsibilities and sibling coalition formation. Criteria for transferability and adequacy were used to determine scientific rigor. Results are discussed and recommendations for nursing practice, policy, research and theory are given.
Notes: Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 55-09, Section: B, page: 3811.

Thesis (PH.D.)--OREGON HEALTH SCIENCES UNIVERSITY, 1993.

School code: 0368.