Sponsor
This research was supported by a cooperative agreement from the US National Institutes of Health, Office of the Director and the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (U01OD033266; MPIs Libby, Lightfoot, Lippman) and the University of California, San Francisco Resource Allocation Program (RAP) Award from the Benioff Homelessness and Housing Initiative (PI Nakphong).
Published In
BMC Public Health
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
9-15-2024
Subjects
Health Research -- Public Health
Abstract
Background: Deep-rooted racial residential segregation and housing discrimination have given rise to housing disparities among low-income Black young adults in the US. Most studies have focused on single dimensions of housing instability, and thus provide a partial view of how Black young adults experience multiple, and perhaps overlapping, experiences of housing instability including homelessness, frequent moves, unaffordability, or evictions. We aimed to illuminate the multiple forms of housing instability that Black young adults contend with and examine relationships between housing instability and mental health outcomes.
Methods: Using baseline data from the Black Economic Equity Movement (BEEM) guaranteed income trial with 300 urban low-income Black young adults (aged 18–24), we conducted a three-stage latent class analysis using nine housing instability indicators. We identified distinct patterns by using fit indices and theory to determine the optimal number of latent classes. We then used multinomial logistic regression to identify subpopulations disproportionately represented within unstable housing patterns. Finally, we estimated associations between housing experience patterns and mental health outcomes: depression, anxiety, and hope. Results We found high prevalence of housing instability with 27.3% of participants reporting experiences of homelessness in the prior year and 39.0% of participants reporting multiple measures of housing instability. We found the 4-class solution to be the best fitting model for the data based on fit indices and theory. Latent classes were characterized as four housing experience patterns: 1) more stably housed, 2) unaffordable and overcrowded housing, 3) mainly unhoused, and 4) multiple dimensions of housing instability. Those experiencing unaffordable and overcrowded housing and being mainly unhoused were more than four times as likely to have symptoms of depression (Unaffordable: aOR = 4.57, 95% CI: 1.64, 12.72; Unhoused: aOR = 4.67, 95% CI:1.18, 18.48) and more than twice as likely to report anxiety (Unaffordable: aOR = 2.28, 95% CI: 1.03, 5.04; Unhoused: aOR = 3.36, 95% CI: 1.12, 10.05) compared to the more stably housed pattern. We found that hope scores were similarly high across patterns.
Conclusions: High prevalence of housing instability and mental health challenges among low-income Black young adults demands tailored interventions to reduce instability, given widening racial disparities and implications for future well-being into adulthood.
Rights
Copyright (c) 2024 The Authors Creative Commons License This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Locate the Document
DOI
10.1186/s12889-024-19948-y
Persistent Identifier
https://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/42547
Citation Details
Nakphong, M. K., Bright, D. J., Koreitem, A., Mocello, A. R., Lisha, N. E., Leslie, H. H., Estrada, I., Libby, M. K., Lippman, S. A., & Lightfoot, M. A. (2024). Housing instability patterns among low-income, urban Black young adults in California and associations with mental health outcomes: baseline data from a randomized waitlist-controlled trial. BMC Public Health, 24(1).