Practising homelessness: a typology approach to young people's daily routines

In a study exploring the relationship between typology and risk, we investigated the daily routines of a heterogeneous sample of young men and women from two sites who had been homeless for varying periods (N = 1289). Cluster analysis yielded four groups-'Partnered', 'Socially engaged', 'Service connected-harm avoidant', and 'Transgressive'-based on where and with whom they congregated and slept during the day and night and how they spent most of their time. Although the patterns of responses differed between the groups, there was overlap in the extent of engagement in specific activities, including risk practices. Interpretation of the impact of homeless young people's engagement in risk practices needs to take account of the interaction between their harmful and non-harmful practices. (C) 2004 Published by Elsevier Ltd. on behalf of The Association for Professionals in Services for Adolescents.