Stressful life events among homeless people: Quantity, types, timing, and perceived causality

This article describes the stressful life events suffered by a multicenter, randomized sample of 262 homeless adults in Madrid, Spain. Subjects were interviewed with the List of Threatening Experiences (Brugha and Cragg, 1990), supplemented by nine additional items specifically related to homelessness. Participants then rated each life event in regard to its causal contribution to their homeless situation. Findings showed that homeless people have suffered a mean of 9.1 important stressful events in their lives. Most of these events occurred Before (45 % of the episodes), or During (39%), the first homelessness episode. In regard to the perceived causality of the stressful events, we found that homeless people have a multicausal view of their own problems. In fact, three categories of events were subjectively related to their current homeless condition: economic problems, breakdown of social ties, and mental illnesses. We discuss the implications of these data in light of Daly’s (1994) typology of causal factors involved in homelessness