INTERPERSONAL RELATIONSHIPS AND ADJUSTMENT OF CHILDREN IN HOMELESS AND ECONOMICALLY DISTRESSED FAMILIES

Assessing the protective elements of social relationships for sixty 7- to 12-year-old children and their residing in homeless shelters and 6 1 children and their mothers in low-income housing allowed us to test an ecological model of the impact of social relationships, income, str ess, and maternal mental health on child adjustment for children in th ese two types of distressed families. Social relationships included th e quality of the child's relationships with parents, teachers, other r elatives, and friends. The model showed that for the homeless group, a lack of social support and maternal depression were significantly ass ociated with adjustment difficulties in the child, whereas for the hou sed low-income group, environmental stress was associated with behavio ral adjustment problems in the child. Perceptions of self-worth were a ssociated with the presence of supportive relationships for children i n both groups.