Associations between individual-level characteristics and exposure to physically violent behavior among young people experiencing homelessness: A meta-analysis

Risk factor reduction approaches may decrease exposure to violence among young people experiencing homelessness. This study presents a meta-analysis exploring associations between characteristics of young people experiencing homelessness (individual-level factors) and exposure to physically violent behavior, both as perpetrators and as victims. A series of meta-analyses using random effects models were conducted, examining 426 effect sizes, calculated from findings across 26 studies. Data were analyzed from 8842 homeless young people, aged 13–26 years from North America. Individual-level factors were significantly associated with both perpetration of physically violent behavior (OR 4.87, p