title: Personal goals and factors related to QoL in Dutch homeless people: what is the role of goal-related self-efficacy?
abstract: Very little is known about the personal goals of homeless people and how these relate to their quality of life (QoL). By using survey data on 407 homeless adults upon entry to the social relief system in 2011, we examined the personal goals of homeless adults and the association between their perceived goal-related self-efficacy and their QoL. A hierarchical regression analysis was used to analyse the association between QoL and goal-related self-efficacy, relative to factors contributing to QoL, such as demographic characteristics, socioeconomic resources, health and service use. Results indicate that the majority of homeless adults had at least one personal goal for the coming 6 months and that most goals concerned housing and daily life (94.3%) and finances (83.6%). The QoL of homeless adults appeared to be lower in comparison with general population samples. General goal-related self-efficacy was positively related to QoL (β = 0.09, P = 0.042), independent of socioeconomic resources (i.e. income and housing), health and service use. The strongest predictors of QoL were psychological distress (β = -0.45, P < 0.001), income (β = 0.14, P = 0.002) and being institutionalised (β = 0.12, P = 0.004). In conclusion, the majority of homeless adults entering the social relief system have personal goals regarding socioeconomic resources and their goal-related self-efficacy is positively related to QoL. It is therefore important to take the personal goals of homeless people as the starting point of integrated service programmes and to promote their goal-related self-efficacy by strength-based interventions.
authors.affiliation: Impuls - Netherlands Center for Social Care Research, Radboud Institute for Health Sciences, Radboud University Medical Center, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.|Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences, Amsterdam, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Jorien
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: van der Laan
authors.affiliation: Department of Primary and Community Care, Radboud Institute for Health Sciences, Radboud University Medical Center, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Sandra N
authors.initials: SN
authors.lastname: Boersma
authors.affiliation: IVO, Addiction Research Institute, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.|Erasmus Medical Centre, Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
authors.forename: Barbara
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: van Straaten
authors.affiliation: IVO, Addiction Research Institute, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.|Erasmus Medical Centre, Rotterdam, the Netherlands.
authors.forename: Gerda
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Rodenburg
authors.affiliation: IVO, Addiction Research Institute, Rotterdam, The Netherlands.|Erasmus Medical Centre, Rotterdam, the Netherlands.|Department of Health Promotion, Maastricht University, the Netherlands.
authors.forename: Dike
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: van de Mheen
authors.affiliation: Impuls - Netherlands Center for Social Care Research, Radboud Institute for Health Sciences, Radboud University Medical Center, Nijmegen, The Netherlands.
authors.forename: Judith R L M
authors.initials: JR
authors.lastname: Wolf
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000328:Adult; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D005260:Female; D006040:Goals; D006703:Ill-Housed Persons / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009426:Netherlands; D011788:Quality of Life; D020377:Self Efficacy; D057566:Self Report
keywords: efficacy; homelessness; quality of life; stress and coping