TABLE 2.

Children's Health, Development, and Health Care Use by Homeless and Doubled-Up Episodes: The Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study, 1998–2006

Variable	Aged 1 Year			Aged 3 Years			Aged 5 Years
	Homeless in Past Year (n = 129), % or Mean	Doubled Up in Past Year (n = 353), % or Mean	Housed Low Income (n = 1666), % or Mean	Homeless in Past Year (n = 95), % or Mean	Doubled Up in Past Year (n = 287) % or Mean	Housed Low Income (n = 1619), % or Mean	Homeless in Past Year (n = 76), % or Mean	Doubled Up in Past Year (n = 252), % or Mean	Housed Low Income (n = 1566), % or Mean
Physical health
Child health as fair or poor	4	5	4	4	3	3	4	2	3
Physical disability mother reported	8**	3	2	7	5	3
Asthma diagnosed	21	17	17	23	20	22	23	28**	20
Mental health (CBCL scores in clinical range)
Internalizing				28	28**	19	12*	5	6
Externalizing				14	12*	8	22	23*	18
Total				6	6	3	15*	11	8
Cognitive Development
PPVT score, percentile				16.5	21.9	20.8	28.0	29.8	31.7
PPVT score, below average				71	64	67	47	44	45
PPVT score, average				27	31	30	51	51	48
PPVT score, above average				2	6	3	2	6	7
Health care use
No. well doctor visits	1.9	1.9	1.9	1.3	1.2	1.2	1.1	1.1	1.0
No. doctor visits for illness or injury	4.9*	4.9**	3.6	1.3	1.4	1.6	1.0*	1.1	1.1
Any ED visit	75**	68*	62	38	45**	34	23	29	26
Any hospitalizations	19	18	18	11	7	6	9	2	3

Note. CBCL = Child Behavior Checklist; ED = emergency department; PPVT = Peabody Picture Vocabulary Test. For homeless and doubled-up groups, we excluded children experiencing such an episode in other years but not in the target year. Comparison group included children from households with incomes at or below the federal poverty threshold in at least 1 of the 3 follow-up interviews but stably housed in all 3 follow-up interviews.

*Significantly different from the housed low-income group at P < .05; **Significantly different from the housed low-income at P<.01