A comparison study of psychiatric and behavior disorders and cognitive ability among homeless and housed children.

This study examined the association of homelessness and related factors with child psychiatric and behavior disorders (diagnosed with structured diagnostic interviews) and child cognitive ability (on the Kaufman Brief Intelligence Test) in a randomly selected sample of 157 homeless children and their mothers and a comparison of 61 housed children and their mothers. Homeless children had more disruptive behavior disorders and lower cognitive scores than housed children. In multivariate analyses, maternal verbal scores and child nonverbal scores were associated with child verbal ability; maternal education, homelessness, and child nonverbal scores were related to child behavior disorders.