Competitividad Uno de los conceptos que mayor relevancia ha tenido en los últimos años es el de “Competitividad” El interés por dicho asunto cobra cada día más

to Erikson (1950), the desire to meet this need happens in young adulthood between the ages of 18 and 40 years. Although most participants are much older, they became homeless at this stage in their lives. This finding suggests that chronic homelessness has an impact on one’s psychosocial development. In addition, all 14 HousingWorks exits discussed having issues of trust while homeless that lingered with them when they moved into HousingWorks. Developing trust happens when we are young children. If a young child does not receive proper care they develop mistrust that follows them into other relationships, as they grow older. Mistrust leads to anxiety, heightened insecurity, and a lack of confidence in one’s ability to influence life events (Elder, 1998). The participants in this study had violent and disruptive childhoods. In many ways, they are still seeking to meet needs that were not met in childhood and adolescence, which has impacted their decisions to exit housing and return to homelessness.

Socioeconomic status, adolescence and identity. All 14 homeless participants in this study grew up in economically deprived families. Like many youth from poor backgrounds, the participants were responsible for household and financial

responsibilities and expected to behave as adults in early adolescence. As young people, participants were often put into adult like positions without the psychosocial capacities to cope with the emotional demands of these roles. Due to these demands and roles, the participants experienced accelerated identity development that seemed to come to an

abrupt stop by young adulthood. Many started to abuse substances and engage in sexual activity in adolescence. Twelve of the 14 participants had multiple children before the age of twenty. Many of the psychosocial needs these participants seek are those developed in the stage of young adulthood. The following excerpts from participants illustrate how experiences in childhood/adolescence impacted the development of their adult identity.

As a young boy, in his early teens, Reggie was asked by his mother to watch over his siblings when his parents died. When his parents died, his brother started abusing drugs and killed himself. Reggie felt responsible when this happened and began drinking heavily.

“The reason I ended up on the streets in the first place, my moms died when I was a boy. I’m a country boy raised on a farm. So mom was in bad health and dad was in bad health, mom wanted me to make a promise when she passed away and dads passed away she wanted me to take care of my sisters and brothers. But things happen to a child when they growing up. My brother used drugs and shot himself. I was a teenager and I started drinking.” –Reggie

When Bryan was a teenager he witnessed a shooting in his family. He was put in a position to testify against a family member. Due to his involvement, there was

dissension in his family, which he felt responsible. At the time of this study, he blamed the shooting and his role as a witness for being estranged from his family.

“When I was a kid I experienced a shooting that was between two first cousins, one shooting the other. I was the key witness and I had to testify. The one that got shot died.

You know I went through some depression and that's what got me druggin. I didn’t man up like I should have. I allowed drugs and a drink to take it off my mind.” -Bryan

Matthew did not specify exactly what happened to him as a teenager, and was guarded during our interview when talking about his childhood and adolescence. He did talk about being homeless as a teenager and learning to survive on the streets while living with an addiction to heroin.

“This trust thing stems way way back. This happened when I was a teenager. I hadn’t really quite left my adolescence yet. I would say maybe in the 11th grade and I started developing the sense of distrust. People would just take advantage of me. So now I don’t trust nobody because I have the mind set that everyone is the same.”-Matthew

Raven discusses her abusive father, the loss of her mother, and the death of her brother. Raven’s mother died when she was 15 years old and she was thrust into a provider role for her father and siblings. As noted previously, at this stage of her

development she never developed the psychosocial skills to cope with the demand of this role, nor the abuse she endured from her father.

“I lost my mother when I was 15 and my oldest brother I took care of him, he had AIDS til he died. Then I had three more brothers that died. It really took its toll. I’m the 8th of 9th children. I have always been heavy and my dad would always say no decent man will want to jump up and down with you because you’re fat you’re ugly so I grew up with self esteem issues.”

4.2.2b Street culture assimilation impact on identity. Street culture assimilation