Central-Denfeld CITS Psychology 2011 Semester II Experiment

On the treatment of homeless youth by multiple age and gender groups.

The 3rd Hour* Psychology class at Central-Denfeld High decided to study the reactions
people have towards homeless youth. They split up into various groups in order to manage the
project, one of which was set up specifically to write this conclusion, and collaborated together
to produce a final product. They assigned students to act as if they were homeless, and assigned
students to stealthily observe the people/subjects who both elicited and didn’t elicit a reaction to
the homeless actor, and estimate their ages. (And in some cases genders) These sessions were
conducted for an average duration of an hour to an hour to two hours, in frequently trafficked
parts of Duluth, Minnesota. Here are the student’s compiled findings.

Of the people whose reactions to homeless youth were observed and recorded some
groups were more populated than others; there more of them and more encounters. Of the males,
the 31-45 year old age group being the most populous comprised ~39% of the encounters. (Once
again, of the male encounters.) Of the females, the 46-60 year old group being the most populous
comprised ~31% of the (female) encounters. Of all the people in our encounters the 31-45 and
46-60 year old age groups proved to be the largest with each separately comprising about the
same ~28% of the total encounters.

Students marked down positive and negative reactions as well as instances in which there
was no perceived reaction. In males the groups with enough encounters to eliminate bias (for
example students only recorded one reaction from the 4-12 year old group and it was negative.
As a percentage 100% of that age group’s reactions were negative, but there was only one.) that
had the greatest percentage of negative reactions were the 31-45 and 46-60 year old age group
tied at a whopping 65% of total encounters yielding negative reactions. The age group with the
greatest percentage of positive reactions was the 20-30 year old age group weighing in at 43%.
The total for all male encounters was comprised mostly of negative reactions cutting out 60%,
and then 30% positive and 10% of those perceived to be confronted with the homeless person’s
presence had no response. In females most groups were large enough to eliminate bias and the
13-19 year old age group had by far the most negative reactions with 90% of their reactions
being negative. The age group with the greatest percentage of positive reactions was also (I
reference to the males) the 20-30 age group also with 43%.

The class then developed a system for measuring the intensity of the reactions received, whereas
there were 3 levels of negative reactions, 3 levels of positive reactions and 1 level for no
reactions. Each observer would rate the reaction a -3,-2,-1, 0, 1, 2, or 3 based on the following
criteria: 0 is no reaction. 1 or -1 is respectively a negative or positive comment or look. 2 or -2 is
a negative or positive mild confrontation or gesture and 3 is helping the person and talking with
them very kindly or if it was a-3 there would be a serious confrontation comprising any of the
following: yelling, offensive language or potentially, ultimately and sadly: violence.
 Overall the perceived reactions to homeless youth were derogatory. The group with the
highest percentage of positive reactions was the combined male and female 20-30 year old
group; it matched their number of negative reactions exactly. Every other group beside the 60
years and older group (whose Positive, negative and “No” reactions were tied at 1 each.) had a
significantly higher amount of negative reactions than positive or “no” reactions. Students still
can’t be sure of the general consensus of homeless youth by the elderly because there were too
few encounters. Students however, can be sure that their own age group of 13-19 year olds had
the highest amount of negative reactions and appear to despise homeless their own age and
possibly other homeless people. There are many potential reasons for this, perhaps it makes them
more uncomfortable with their heavily criticized generation, reminds them of the fear that they
too could wind up homeless or one of many other interpretations/possibilities that exist. It is a
most interesting and ironic end to this high school experiment regarding homeless youth to find
that young people have a problem with young homeless people. At the same time this, like
everything else in an imperfect experiment, more studies will be done by other schools and
universities in the future and eventually give the general public a clearer picture of the attitudes
towards teenagers without homes. This will hopefully be an addition to the collection of reliable
and accessible knowledge that is the destiny of the children in and of the 21st Century and their
Zeitgeist.
 3/4th Hour.