Influence of early stressful life events on the future expectancy changes and current addictions in homeless people

Abstract

Stressful life events experienced at an early developmental stage could have a negative infl uence on the rest of people´s lives. For this research 49 homeless people were selected from two Spanish foster care centres. They were interviewed for three months and divided in two groups, using a Statistical Latent Classes Model, according to the following variables: number of stressful life events experienced before sixteen years old, having a current addiction and future changes expectancy. Homeless people with high probabilities of having between 1 and 5 stressful life events before sixteen, (0.704; 70.4%), had a higher probability of having a negative expectation of future changes in their lives (0.77; 77%) and presented a higher probability of not having current addictions (0.763; 76.3%). However, individuals with higher probability of having more than 5 stressful events (0.662; 66.2%) had a higher probability of having a positive outlook about change of situation in the future (0.758; 75.8%) and presented a higher probability of having a current addiction (0.614; 61.4%). According to these data, a relationship between past, present and future exists. Therefore, it would be advisable to anticipate addiction prevention policies or motivation therapy according to the number of stressful life events experienced before sixteen.