Date of Conferral

2017

Degree

Ph.D.

School

Psychology

Advisor

Stephen Rice

Abstract

Homelessness is a major social problem in the United States and this nation has the largest number of homeless women. Minority women appear to be more affected than other individuals. Specifically, they are more vulnerable, impoverished, and disenfranchised than all other groups in the nation. These factors affect their emotional well-being and ability to move toward and achieve sustainability. Particularly, African-American women are disproportionately represented in the homeless population, yet they have not been adequately examined in research studies and there are minimal empirical studies that focus on homeless African-American women. Beck's cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) and Weiner's attribution theory provided the theoretical foundation for this study. The purpose of this quantitative research was to investigate whether the length of time African-American women are homeless and their attribution style are associated with symptoms of depression. The data were obtained by administering a demographic questionnaire, the Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II), and the Attributional Style Questionnaire-revised (ASQ-revised) to 70 African-American women living in a shelter and 2 transitional living centers in Charlotte, North Carolina. Data were analyzed using hierarchical multiple regression. The findings revealed no significant relationship between length of time homeless and depression or between attribution style and length of time homeless. There were no moderation effects. However, there was a significant positive relationship between attribution style and depression. The implications for positive social change include influencing polices pertaining to managing depressive symptoms of homeless African-American women to increase their chances of becoming re-housed.

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