After the crisis of IMF in 1997, the number of homeless was increased. Accordingly, the concerns about the homeless was increased. The resident of Skid Row Community is regarded as homeless. This study is examined on the effect of stressors and coping...
After the crisis of IMF in 1997, the number of homeless was increased. Accordingly, the concerns about the homeless was increased. The resident of Skid Row Community is regarded as homeless. This study is examined on the effect of stressors and coping resources on depressive symptoms. As a theoretical framework, stress process model was used. The life condition of the homeless itself is stressful. As stressors of their lives, unemployment and chronic illness/functional disability which are directly related to the poverty were used. As coping resources, problem-focused coping, emotion-focused coping and social support were used to see the effect on depressive symptoms. The object of this study is the resident of Skid Row Community who live in Seoul and Daegu and the sample size is 173. As a sampling method, availability sampling was used. For checking the factors of coping strategies, principle component analysis was used. For data analysis, t-test or x2 were used for difference tests and hierarchical regression was used for effect tests. According to the research results, there are statistically significant differences of the coping strategies depending on the chronic illness. When there is chronic illness, the problem-focused coping is lower and the emotion -focused coping is higher than those of no chronic illness in a statistically significant level. Also, when there is physical illness, the depressive symptom is higher than that of no chronic illness in a statistically significant level. The level of the depressive symptom is higher when one has no job compared to one having a job, but it is not statistically significant. The research results show that the difference between the effect of the chronic illness and having no chronic illness on depressive symptom is statistically significant. The effects of the problem-focused coping and the perceived social support on the depressive symptom are negative in a statistically significant level. Thus, the problem-focused coping and the perceived social support have positive effects on the depressive symptom of the homeless.