ATTITUDES OF CITIZENS TO THE POLICY OF HOMELESSNESS IN ST. PETERSBURG

Abstract

The problem of homelessness in Saint-Petersburg is very acute at the moment. According to statistics, there are estimated 12 000 homeless people in the streets, with that number growing every year. This problem relates to studies in social and political psychology. A psychological research was conducted, aimed at researching sociopsychological characteristics and features of homelessness so that a typology of homeless people can be created in order to socialize them. Preparatory stage of this study was a through observation of homeless people, including an in-depth interview for a better study. At this point, following types of homeless people were proposed: hustlers, vagrants, people ready for change, people not ready for change, escapists using drugs and alcohol, and reasons for losing home were identified as well. Taking results of preparatory stage into account, the design of main study was made, including a scale multi-factor questionnaire. 60 homeless people in SaintPetersburg were surveyed. They were asked to evaluate the scale of agreement with statements divided into blocks. Blocks were formed from different spheres in order to capture all the psychological reasons for becoming homeless. Among others, there was family block to evaluate the family relationships, block of dependency on alcohol or drugs, block of socialization to evaluate readiness to embrace change, block of mental disorders. Exploratory factor analysis of questionnaire data united the signs of factors, which we gave following names: factor of readiness/not readiness to accept change, factor of family conflict in childhood, factor of divorce/leaving/isolation from family, factor of forgetfulness or capacity to leave relationships, adventurer factor, vagrancy factor, alcoholism due to post-traumatic disorder. Psychological features of homelessness in the following study are seen in the boundaries of psychological science as evading risk, danger, threat, responsibility, overcoming fear, as a way to escape reality creating personal defense mechanism against internal and external threats and fears. The questionnaire for homelessness helps identify and predict psychological and sociological features which can leave the person on the streets and thrown out of society, which can help create patterns for socializing homeless people and preventing homelessness in Saint-Petersburg.