Keywords

Descriptive study; Psychosocial problems; Street children; Foster homes

Introduction

The enormous problems faced by the street children in the last several years were stated by different scholars in different times and topic of diverse philosophy. Street children faces tremendous problems which has been seen in last few years which has been observed by research scholars at different times and also with diverse philosophy related to particular topic [1,2].

The problems of street children show a wide dispersion in terms of psychological, physical and sexual abuses and unfortunately, they were not included in society programme [3].

Children living in certain pockets of the society termed as social epi-centres undergo various traumas in life such as poverty, abuse, discrimination, stigma and isolation that affect their psychosocial development [4]. The higher stress experienced by the children interferes with their day-to-day life and results in various behavioural problems that are mostly antisocial in nature, which is reported more among boys [4].

Poverty is known directly or indirectly to force children toward streets. A multitude of causes, such as alcoholism, family violence, non-fulfillment of basic needs, hunger, and familial issues, in pushing the children “on the streets” and sometimes “of the street” [5].

The type of work or occupation is an important factor to analyze the mental health of an individual. The results highlight the children those who were engaged in begging and rag picking are more prone to psychosocial problems. The existing literature argues that working children are at high risk of physical, emotional and sexual abuse at work place [6].

Street children belonging to Latin American and Asian countries and more specifically the African country is more affected than any other part of the world, although this issue is a global one with more percentage seen in developing countries [7]. Migration shows a major role in the context of street children especially in Asia [1,8]. Literature review reveled that social intervention has a positive role in addressing the problems of street children along with NGO’s [9]. Supportive housing offers a timely, but underused opportunity to address the significant psychosocial needs of formerly homeless children through prevention and treatment [10]. Strategies including effective Psychological support, parent redirection to their responsibility and the fight against family/domestic violence would be helpful in facing the problem of street children. More effort to satisfy the children’s basic needs as well as the effective support for their studies may be possible solutions to successfully address the persisting phenomenon of street children. It also would be good to provide parents with training on effective children upbringing in the areas such as the effectiveness of parental affection and in terms of guidance for children [11].

As children living on street live without responsible adult’s supervision and face many problems they are more likely to face psychosocial distress. The situation and needs of the children living on street not adequately understood. Therefore, it is necessary to understand symptoms of distress among children living on street. Keeping these facts in mind, the following study was undertaken.

Methodology

Research design

Descriptive research design was adopted for the present study.

Dependent variable

Psychosocial problems faced by the street children in foster homes.

Demographic variable

Age, religion, domicile, family system, number of children in the family, birth order of the child, preschool learning, school absenteeism and percentage in last exam.

Sample

The sample size of the present study consists of 100 street children residing in selected study settings.

Research hypotheses

H1: There will be a significant association between selected demographic variables and the rating scores for the selected psychosocial problems.

Sampling technique

In the present study purposive sampling technique was adopted to select the sample.

Selection and development of the tool

After an extensive review of literature, discussion with the experts and the investigator’s personal experience a Structured 3- Point Rating Scale on Psychosocial problems was developed. Structured questionnaire which consist of 2 parts.

Part- I: It consist of 9 items related to demographic data which includes age, religion, domicile, family system, number of children in the family, birth order of the child, preschool learning, school absenteeism and percentage in last exam.

Part- II: It is again divided into 2 sections which are related to the psychosocial problems.

Section A: It consists of 4 questions based on rating scale to assess psychological isolation.

Section B: It consists of 4 questions based on rating scale to assess tendency to run away from homes.

Section C: It consists of 4 questions based on rating scale to assess fearfulness.

Section D: It consists of 5 questions based on rating scale to assess violence.

Section E: It consists of 5 questions based on rating scale to assess stage fear.

Section F: it consists of 4 questions based on rating scale to assess sportsmanship.

Section G: It consists of 4 questions based on rating scale to assess social isolation.

Section H: it consists of 8 questions based on rating scale to assess disobedience.

The samples were categorized under mild, moderate, and severe, based on their scores as follows:

Mild: 76-100%.

Moderate: 51-75%.

Severe: 50% and below.

Results and Discussion

India is in second place among country in the world not only in terms population but also in terms of large child population especially the street children are increasing day by day. In our study, we found that among 100 street children, 12 (12%) were in the age group of 6 to 8 years, 14 (14%) were in the age group of 7 to 12 years, whereas, 17 (17%) were in the age group of 9 years, 22 (22%) were in the age group of 10 years and 10 (10%) were in the age group of 11 years (Table 1). This age group has given the result that majority of the children belong to age group 10 years. In case of religion wise category, about 30 (30%) were Hindus, 60 (60%) were Christians, 10 (10%) were Muslim and from other religious caste showing the vulnerability of the children towards on particular community which needs to be addressed very seriously. Majority of the samples were from rural area with 68 (68%) participants and remaining 32 (32%) were from urban area which indicates the seriousness of the importance to be given to rural area more vigorously (Table 1).