A Study on the Social Disaffiliation of the Homeless

노숙자의 사회적 연계단절에 관한 연구

Homelessness became a major social problem in Korea. And the homeless presents many kinds of problems in social functioning. In studies on the homeless, Physical and mental health, alcohol and subtance abuse, the vulnerability of the social support have been frequently described as major characteristics of the homeless. Of the homeless' psychosocial characteristics, this article focused on the lack of the social support, which plays a important role on the exit from homelessness. The lack of social support has been mentioned as cause for homelessness. But a few researchers stressed the perspective that the homelessness causes the lack of social support. This article analyzed empirically the lack of social support among the homeless in terms of "social disaffiliation". This article hypothesized: (a) as longer homeless duration, the extent of the perceived social support would be decreased, (b) as longer homeless duration, the magnitude of the social network would be decreased, (c) as longer homeless duration, the ratio of the homeless in social network would be increased. Survey data collected from 355 homeless persons (sheltered homeless) at 82 shelters in Seoul. The result of analysis supports 'social disaffiliation hypotheses'. The result of this study suggests that the social work intervention to strengthen social support and social network be critically important in homeless shelter.