ABSTRACT

Background: Adolescence is considered the second most critical and the second most vulnerable developmental period in the lifespan. Life in institutional care settings has both positive and negative consequences on adolescents’ life. Aim of this study is to explore the quality of life of homeless female adolescents residing in shelter institutions.

Design: A qualitative research design was used.

Sample: a purposive sample of 15 homeless female adolescents who reside in a shelter institution were selected.

Setting: The study was conducted at New Women Mabarah Association, Cairo, Egypt.

Methods: two methods for data collection were used; Homeless Female Adolescents Structured Questionnaire & Homeless Female Adolescents Semi-Structured Interview.

Results: in relation to components of quality of life (QOL) for homeless female adolescents, education and safety constituted the main components of QOL (73.33% & 26.66% respectively). The lived experience of homeless female adolescents' indicated that education was very important as it will help them achieve a better future. Female adolescents in the institution believed that their QOL is negatively affected by lack of medical services and limited freedom. However, it seems that relationship among adolescents provides some sort of reciprocal psychological support and enhances within the institution independence.

Conclusion: adolescents in the institution have a lot of rules and regulations they have to abide by in order to have reasonable QOL.

Keywords: Quality of life (QOL), homeless female adolescents, shelter institutions, phenomenological study.