Like Specters in the Street: Addressing Social Isolation and Marginalization in Interventional Strategies Targeting Homeless Teen Mothers

Abstract

Interventions aimed at pregnant women are often educational strategies in the forms of classes and informational pamphlets. While these strategies produce positive results, their efficacy might be increased if they address underlying psychosocial determinants of health behavior. This work investigates the underlying mechanism of social isolation and marginalization and posits that because homeless individuals are at the intersection of low socioeconomic status and marginalization, there are unexplored avenues for health intervention that take a psychosocial approach. The following review and meta-analysis aim to look at homeless teenage mothers, an especially high-risk subset of the homeless population, and examine what interventional strategies will best serve them.