Nowhere to Grow: Homeless and Runaway Adolescents and Their Families

by Les B. Whitbeck

Book Overview

Les B. Whitbeck and Dan R. Hoyt begin their report on street children in the Midwest with the statement, "If you live in or have visited even a medium-sized city recently, you have seen runaway and homeless young people. They congregate in certain downtown areas and hang out in malls during inclement weather . . . Mostly, they look like the other kids. . . . The difference is that they won't be going home tonight."

This book draws on a study...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0202305848
• ISBN13: 9780202305844
• Release Date: January 1999
• Publisher: Routledge
• Length: 229 Pages
• Weight: 0.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

an extended research article

Those who are hoping to find a flowing narrative will be disappointed. This is not a piece of journalism, but rather something that one might find in a scientific research journal. If you are not familiar with that format (especially psychology journals), this book may disappoint. However, if you are seeking a definitive summary of the most comprehensive research project on the subject of adolescent homelessness, written by two expert scholars in the area, then you have found your book! Their methods are outstanding, especially given the difficulties of working with this population. They cover topics comprehensively and present an excellent research-based look into the lives of these adolescents. This book is indispensible to anyone who hopes to work with this population. Even if a reader is not familiar with this format or population, there are still things to be gained by reading this book.

Definitely worth the read

This is a very good book and I highly recommend that you read it if you are at all interested in run away/homeless adolescents. The writers of this book are sociology professors. As such, they do not base their account of homeless teens on anecdotal observations. Instead, their account is based on solid research. Specifically their conclusions about these youths are based on the writers' own scientific study and other academic studies. Now, please don't think that this book is just a bunch of statistical numbers that can make even the most interesting subject seem boring and painful to read. NO! NO! NO! This book does give you the stats but it also gives you tons of interesting facts that captures the reader's attention and makes her/him want to keep reading to the end. Also, it is a fairly easy read.

tatistical analysis witha human face

An excellent work for anyone who works with troubled youth or just wants to learn more about the problems faced by teens on the streets. It focuses attention on the problems faced by children that leave them more at risk for running away, the factors that make it more likely for them to be victimized once on the streets, and what tools enable them to move on to a housed/jobbed future. The book does contain statistical analysis of the data they gathred in a multiple year study of homeless teens in small to medium sized midwestern cities, but is filled with lively writing accesible to the non-academic as well, topped off with sparkling and heartbreaking bon mots of life on the streets. A powerful work that looks at a little known face of homelessness, younger people in places where there aren't supposed to be any homeless. Quantitative Sociology with soul, statistical analysis with a human face.