College Students Perceptions’ of Homelessness: Does Contact Matter?

Open Access
- Author:
- Penza, Megan Catherine
- Area of Honors:
- Sociology
- Degree:
- Bachelor of Arts
- Document Type:
- Thesis
- Thesis Supervisors:
- Barrett Alan Lee, Thesis Supervisor
Dr. Jeffery Todd Ulmer, Thesis Honors Advisor - Keywords:
- College Students
Homelessness
Perceptions
Contact Hypothesis - Abstract:
- Homelessness is a major social issue that is perceived and understood in many different ways by the members of the public. For example, beliefs about how people become homeless differ greatly: some domiciled individuals believe that homelessness is a matter of personal responsibility while others attribute it to structured circumstances. College students are an interesting population to study because their views could influence how homelessness is addressed in the future. These views may be affected by students’ contact with or expose to the issue of homelessness. The contact hypothesis states that the more contact a member of an in-group has with the out-group, the more positive their attitudes toward the out-group become. Contact can occur on multiple dimensions ranging from face-to-face interaction to exposure via the media. To explore the relationship between contact with homelessness and perceptions of the problem I interviewed 35 college undergraduates. My results suggest that most college students are sympathetic toward the issue of homelessness and believe that it is caused by a combination of structural circumstance and personal responsibility, although they place greater emphasis on circumstance. Contact with the homeless appears to increase respondents’ tolerance of and interest in the issue. Those students with more in-depth contact also have more fully developed ideas about possible policy solutions to homelessness.