Hatting R, Poggenpoel M, Myburgh C P
Curationis. 1998 Mar;21(1):46-54.
The street child that is driven by circumstances to live outside the supportive structure of the family, is on his own. He doesn't have the educational developmental opportunities that children who grow up in families and societies do. He finds himself in a unique educational and living environment. From an educational psychologist's point of view, this environment is abnormal. It is therefore a great challenge for the educational psychologist to try and avoid or resolve negative effects of the child's living environment. An exploratory-, descriptive-, contextual- and qualitative study was done, with the aim of gaining insight and understanding into the life of the street child in Hillbrow as well as his experiences of his situation. The results obtained from the interviews were placed in four categories. These categories are: The street child's continuous struggle to survive his need for a "normal child life", his inability to accept responsibility and the presence of a normative awareness within the street child. In conclusion it is clear that the experiential world of the street child is multi-facetted. In general it appears that the street child has many limitations and difficulties which he experiences, and that input by an educational psychologist can have meaningful influence in his life.
受环境所迫而生活在家庭支持结构之外的街头儿童，只能独自面对一切。他没有那些在家庭和社会中成长的孩子所拥有的教育发展机会。他置身于一种独特的教育和生活环境中。从教育心理学家的角度来看，这种环境是不正常的。因此，对于教育心理学家来说，试图避免或解决儿童生活环境的负面影响是一项巨大的挑战。开展了一项探索性、描述性、情境性和定性研究，旨在深入了解和认识希尔布罗街头儿童的生活以及他对自身处境的体验。从访谈中获得的结果分为四类。这些类别是：街头儿童为生存而持续挣扎、他对“正常儿童生活”的需求、他无法承担责任以及街头儿童存在规范意识。总之，很明显街头儿童的体验世界是多面的。总体而言，街头儿童似乎经历了许多限制和困难，而教育心理学家的介入能够对他的生活产生有意义的影响。
