Date of Graduation
5-2025
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Bachelor of Social Work
Degree Level
Undergraduate
Department
School of Social Work
Advisor/Mentor
Gallagher, John
Committee Member
Plassmeyer, Mark
Second Committee Member
McCoy, Michael
Abstract
This study investigates the relationship between childhood housing and current physical and behavioral health in Northwest Arkansas college students. Non-medical factors often determine a person’s health. Social determinants of health, as defined by the World Health Organization, are the conditions in which people are “...born, grow, work, live, and age...”, and they include wider systems such as economic and social policies, social norms, and political structures (World, 2023). A key social determinant of health is housing.
The average age of an undergraduate student at the University of Arkansas during the 2020-2021 school year was twenty-one (Gunderman, 2021). This is a critical developmental period where students prepare for adulthood, and poor physical health may be an obstacle. As a well-established social determinant of health, the housing a traditional college student grew up in may be playing a role in their current well-being and, with that, their future.
Keywords
social work; housing; sociology; medical; social determinants of health; health health; northwest arkansas
Citation
O'Neill, K. E. (2025). Childhood Housing Conditions as a Social Determinant of Health in College Students. School of Social Work Undergraduate Honors Theses Retrieved from https://scholarworks.uark.edu/scwkuht/9
