Abstract
Our study takes advantage of unique data to quantify deficits in the psychosocial and cognitive resources of an extremely vulnerable subpopulation-those experiencing housing vulnerability-in an advanced, high-income country (Australia). Groups such as these are often impossible to study using nationally representative data sources because they make up a small share of the overall population. We show that those experiencing housing vulnerability sleep less well, have more limited cognitive functioning, and less social capital than do those in the general population. They are also less emotionally stable, less conscientious, more external, and more risk tolerant. Collectively, these deficits in psychosocial and cognitive resources account for between 24-42% of their reduced life satisfaction and their increased mental distress and loneliness. These traits also account for a large proportion of the gap in mental wellbeing across different levels of housing vulnerability.
Highlights
The way that people perceive the world, process information, and make decisions is shaped by by their beliefs and values, and by their psychological, social, and cognitive resources
This is consistent with a counterfactual thought experiment in which we are interested in how wellbeing would change if we could give the housing insecure the same resources as the general population, and the same returns on those resources (in Table D3 (Fig D2) in S4 Appendix in S1 Online Appendix we show results where b^jh is used instead, in which case psychosocial resources explain even more of the gaps in wellbeing)
Previous efforts to measure certain psychosocial resources of extremely poor households have focused on developing countries [48,49]
Summary
The way that people perceive the world, process information, and make decisions is shaped by by their beliefs and values, and by their psychological, social, and cognitive resources. Our sample of disadvantaged individuals is drawn from the universe of administrative social assistance records, while detailed survey data allow us to analyse three measures of mental wellbeing (mental health, life satisfaction, loneliness) accounting for a comprehensive set of psychological (emotional stability, conscientiousness, control perceptions), social (support network), and cognitive (working memory, risk affinity, future orientation, sleep quality) resources. This study draws on data from the Journeys Home Project in which a representative sample of housing-vulnerable Australians was selected using the Australian government’s protocols for flagging all social assistance recipients thought to be either ‘homeless’ or ‘at risk of homelessness’. To understand how housing vulnerability interacts with people’s psychological, social, and cognitive resources, we compare the characteristics of Journeys Home respondents to those of a representative sample drawn from the Household, Income and Labour Dynamics in Australia (HILDA) Survey. HILDA is a representative longitudinal survey that was launched in 2001 and has followed a panel of Australian households annually since (see [27])
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