A Study of Substance Abuse, Traumata, and Social Support Systems Among Homeless Veterans

This study of 310 women and 315 men, homeless veterans, who abuse substances is designed to examine predictors of readmission to inpatient drug treatment in a two-year follow-up. It appears to be the first study of gender differences in predictors of readmission among homeless veterans, and it examines the possibilities that various social support systems mediate or moderate the relationships between different traumatic experience over the life span and readmission. The findings show that social supports only partially mediate the relationships between traumata and readmission, and certain supports moderate some of these relationships, especially for women. The implications of these findings for understanding readmission of homeless substance abusers and for social services are discussed. (C) 2005 by The Haworth Press, Inc. All rights reserved.