University of Texas School of Public Health, Austin, TX 78701, United States; Sodzo International, OVC Research Division, 4100 South Main, Houston, TX 77002, United States.
Maua Methodist Hospital, Maua, Meru County, Kenya.
Child Abuse Negl. 2018 Aug;82:34-44. doi: 10.1016/j.chiabu.2018.05.011. Epub 2018 May 28.
Research with street-involved children and youth (SICY) in Sub-Saharan Africa over the past three decades has established a complex web of both micro and macro-level factors that simultaneously "push" and "pull" children and youth to the street. There is still little research with adult family and community members in communities from which SICY originate. Forty men and women from five semi-rural villages in Meru County, Kenya participated in a Rapid Rural Appraisal utilizing a fishbone diagram to explore main and underlying reasons for why children may be or may feel unwelcome in the home and thus migrate to the street. Responses were analyzed in terms of ecological levels, child or parent perspective, and the push/pull framework. Overall, community members identified families and households experiencing stress and lacking the necessary resources to successfully adjust and adapt. Four ecological levels of influence were proposed as main reasons, with parent and caregiver factors mentioned most often, followed by household factors, children's intrapersonal factors, and interpersonal (family) factors. Community and environmental level factors were also proposed as underlying factors. Analysis by gender revealed that both men and women emphasized push factors over pull factors, though men proposed more pull factors (from peers and street life) than women did. Men placed more responsibility on the children than women did, citing children's negative behaviors, dissatisfaction with home, and a desire for independence and work/income. Women, in contrast, emphasized children's feelings of being unloved and the experience of harsh punishment or abuse from caregivers. Findings suggest that interventions to reduce street involvement should support economically, medically, and psychologically vulnerable families and households through comprehensive family strengthening programs that build financial capacity, improve parenting and communication skills, and promote education over child work and labor.
过去三十年来，对撒哈拉以南非洲街头流浪儿童和青少年（SICY）的研究已经确定了一个复杂的微观和宏观层面因素网络，这些因素同时“推动”和“迫使”儿童和青少年走上街头。对于来自 SICY 来源社区的成年家庭成员和社区成员，仍缺乏相关研究。来自肯尼亚梅鲁县五个半农村村庄的 40 名男性和女性参与了快速农村评估，利用鱼骨图探讨了儿童可能或感到不受欢迎而迁移到街头的主要和根本原因。根据生态层面、儿童或父母的观点以及推拉框架来分析这些回应。总体而言，社区成员确定了面临压力和缺乏必要资源的家庭和家庭，这些家庭无法成功地调整和适应。提出了四个生态层面的影响作为主要原因，其中父母和照顾者的因素被提及最多，其次是家庭因素、儿童的内在因素以及人际（家庭）因素。社区和环境层面的因素也被提议作为潜在因素。按性别进行的分析表明，男性和女性都强调了推式因素而非拉式因素，尽管男性比女性提出了更多的拉式因素（来自同龄人及街头生活）。男性比女性更倾向于将责任归咎于孩子，他们提到了孩子的消极行为、对家庭的不满以及对独立和工作/收入的渴望。相比之下，女性则强调孩子感到不被爱，以及遭受照顾者的严厉惩罚或虐待的经历。研究结果表明，减少街头流浪的干预措施应通过全面的家庭强化计划来支持经济、医疗和心理上脆弱的家庭和家庭，这些计划可以建立经济能力、提高育儿和沟通技巧，并促进教育而不是童工和劳动。
