The meaning of family routines in a homeless shelter
Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 21, 2026

Methodology for Establishing a Community-Wide Life Laboratory for Capturing Unobtrusive and Continuous Remote Activity and Health Data
Published on: July 27, 2018
1Occupational Therapy Department, San Jose State University, One Washington Square, San Jose, California 95192-0059, USA. winifred@email.sjsu.edu
Objective:
This exploratory investigation sought to understand what meaning parents, living in a homeless shelter, attribute to family routines and the nature of those routines.
Method:
In-depth interviews were conducted with 12 parents living in a homeless shelter. Thematic analysis was employed to develop descriptive codes and themes from transcribed data and field notes.
Results:
Parents described family routines focused on three features: promoting intimacy, maintaining or developing a legacy, and connections with the community. These routines seemed to preserve family integrity while homeless and to provide hope for the family to continue into the future.
Conclusions:
Homeless parents, in this investigation, seemed to expend a substantial amount of energy to create or maintain family routines while living in a homeless shelter. Findings suggest that occupational therapy services may help support homeless parents as they exercise their role as the organizer of family routines.
Related Concept Videos
Specialized Care Centers and Settings-II
Rural health centers are specialized care facilities in remote locations with very few medical personnel. The primary care providers who run the centers are mostly Registered Nurse Practitioners. Here, emergency treatment is provided to critically ill or injured patients before they are transferred to the closest hospital. Fortunately, due to advancement in technology, many rural healthcare facilities and professionals have easy access to diagnostic and treatment...
Family Therapy
Strategic Family Therapy
Strategic family therapy emphasizes resolving communication barriers and improving problem-solving abilities...
Documentation in Long-Term and Home Healthcare Setting
Long-Term Care Facilities
Relationship with Other Adult Family Members and Siblings
Restorative Care
Schemas
