جامعه شناسی کاربردی (Feb 2013)
An Analysis of the Street-Children Phenomenon in the City of Isfahan
Abstract
Introduction In nearly all big cities around the world, the phenomenon of street children is one of the contemporary social issues. During past several decades, there is an increase in the volume of street children phenomenon around the world. The rising number of street children has many pathological and consequential negative impacts for children, youth, families, and the society at the whole . According to 2000 UN report, the number of street children is estimated between 100 to140 million people. According to this report, it is estimated that around 40 million people living in Latin America, 35 million in Asia, 10 million in Africa and remaining live in other countries including advanced industrial societies. There are not reliable data about the number of street children in Iran. According to the available reports there are around 20 thousand street children in Iran. Some preliminary studies show a trend towards the growth of street children phenomenon in several big cities of Iran. The pathological impact of street children phenomenon need appropriate policy-making based on scientific approach. Thus various scientific researchers should work for deeper understanding of factors associated with the formation and characteristics of street children to better social policy. Materials and Methods The present paper aims to examine the overall situation of street children concerning their life style, activities, experiences, family background, educational achievement and other behavioral characteristics. For this purpose, data collected through a survey administered in the face-to-face interview among 122 street children aged 6-14 which working in the street of Isfahan city in the spring of 2010. The measurement validity of the study obtained through face validity and the questionnaire has been revised based on the experts’ comments and suggestions. Also a pretest study conducted to examine questionnaire and based on the results of the pretest, questionnaire has been finalized. Data analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. Discussion of Results and Conclusions Other characteristics of sample indicated that around 12 percents of street children was illiterate and about 58 percent of them leave their school before the completion of guidance school. Monthly income for 8.2 percent of respondents was below 150 thousand Tomans, 76.2 percent between 150 to 300 thousand Tomans and 14.7 was between 301 t0 500 thousand Tomans. The highest income had for those children who were selling drugs. Around two third of respondents give their income to their adult family member. Also around two third of children worked as peddler and around one-fifth had a deviant job. Findings also indicate that five-seventh of respondents were physically abused by their parents. 22% of respondents arrested by police and 5 percent went to prison and 7 percent have one to two years in a juvenile institution. Examining parental characteristics of street children show that over 90 percent of mothers and fathers of the respondents have had below elementary schooling. About 70 percent of fathers’ respondent and 24 percent of mothers’ respondent has been employed. About 72 percent of children have at least one or both parents who addicted. 15 percent have had parents who divorced and 25 percent has experienced orphanhood. In sum our research findings confirm that majority of street children under the study are boy, migrant, with low family income, having addicted parents, and usually have been physically abused by their parents and they are working as peddler. The findings also indicate that street children had deviant behavior in some case, was arrested by police, some of them even have gone to prison. Finally, research has shown that there are a significant relationship between parental drug addiction and the abuse of children by parents with the type of works that children are doing. Data shows that the kind of jobs that children do has a significant relationship with such variables as parental addiction, children abuse by parents, and parental imprisonment. Results also indicate that deviant job observed in the most cases among those children who have an addicted parent, employed in deviant job and abused by their parents. In sum, it can be concluded that various factor played an important role in the formation and the emergence of street children phenomenon. Among others, these factors include family poverty, family disruption (as a result of such factors as parental drug addiction, divorce or death of parents and parental imprisonment), migration and suburbanization, and children abuse by their parents. References Ahmad Khaniha H., S. Turkman Nejad, and M. Hussaini Moghaddam (2002). "Epidemiology of Depression and Sexual Abuse among Street Children". IJPCP , 8(1): 14-20. Ahmadi, H. and M.T. Iman (2005). "The Culture of Poverty, Asylum and Tendency to Delinquent Behavior among Dehpealeh Asylum's Youth", Journal of Humanities University of Isfahan, 19(2): 99-118. Aderinto, A. A (2000). "Social Correlates and Coping Measures of Street Children: A Comparative Study of Street and Non-Street Children in South – Western Nigeria". Child Abuse and Neglect, 24(9): 1199- 1213. Aptekar, L. (1988a). "The Street Children of Colombia: How Families Define the Nature of Childhood". International Journal of Sociology of the Family, 18(2): 283-296. Aptekar, L. (1988b). Street Children of Cali. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. Aptekar, L. (1991). "Are Colombian Street Children Neglected? The Contributions of Ethnographic and Ethnohistorical Approaches to the Study of Children." Anthropology and Education Quarterly, 22(4): 326-349 Aptekar, L. (1994). "Street Children in the Developing World: A Review of Their Condition," Cross-Cultural Research, 28(3): 195-224. Aptekar, L. (2004) "The Changing Developmental Dynamics of Children in Particularly Difficult Circumstances: Examples of Street and War-Traumatized Children," (Chapter 15) in Childhood and Adolescence: Cross-Cultural Perspectives and Applications. Praeger Publishers: Westport, CT. Batmanghelidjh, C. (2006) Shattered Lives: Children Who Live With Courage and Dignity, Jessica Kingsley: London Bose A. B. (1992). The Disadvantaged Urban Child in India, Innocenti Occasional Papers, Urban Child Series No. 1, UNICEF International Child Development Centre. Boydon, J. (1986). Children in Development: Policy and Programming for Especially Disadvantaged Children in Lima, Peru. Oxford: United Nations Children’s Fund. Baker, T. L. (1998). Doing Social Research. Boston: McGraw-Hill Campos, R., M. Raffaelli, W. Ude, M. Greco, A. Ruff, J. Rolf, C. Antunes, N. Halsey, and D. Greco, (1994). "Social Networks and Daily Activities of Street Youth in Belo Horizonte, Brazil." Child Development 65(2): 319-330. Connolly, M. (1990). "Adrift in the City: A Comparative Study of Street Children in Bogotd, Colombia and Guatemala City." In N. Boxhill (Ed.), Homeless children: The watchers and the waiters (pp. 129-149). New York: Haworth Press. Consortium for Street Children (2011) "Street Children: A Mapping and Gapping Review of the Literature from 2000 to 2010," Online available at: http://www.streetchildren.org.uk /_ uploads/publications/ Street_Children _Mapping__Gapping_Literature_Review_-_FINAL_VERSION_-_February_2011.pdf . de Pineda, V, E. de Munoz, P. de Pineda, Y. Echeverry, and J. Arias, (1978). El Gamin su alberque socialy su familia (Vol. 1) [The gamins’ social home and family] Bogota: Instituto Colombiano de Bienestar Familiar. Donald, D. and J. Swart (1994). "The South African Street Child: Developmental Implications." South African Journal of Psychology 24(4): 169-174. Eghlima, M. (2007). "Homeless Children in Tehran", Political & Economic Ettela'at 21(239-240): 142-147. . Felsman, K. (1979). Invulnerability: On Risk, Resiliency and Adaptation in Childhood. Unpublished Doctoral Dissertation, Harvard University, Cambridge. Felsman, K. (1981). "Street Urchins of Columbia", Natural History, 90(1): 41-48. Felsman, K. (1989). "Resiliency in Context: Children Coping in Extreme Circumstances." The Child in Our Times: Studies in the Development of Resiliency, (ed). T Dugan, R Coles, (pp. 56–80). New York: Brunner/Mazel Gutierrez, J. (1970). "Using a Clinical Methodology in a Social Study of Deviant Children". Western Reserve Journal of Sociology, 4: 1-28. Ghasemzade, F. (2003). "Tehran Street Children", Social Welfare Quarterly, 2(7): 249-263. HajYahia, M. (2001). "The Incidence of Witnessing Interparental Violence and Some of Its Psychological Consequences among Arab Adolescents," Child Abuse and Neglect, 25(7): 885-907 Hickson, J. and V. Gaydon, (1989). "Counseling in South Africa: The Challenge of Apartheid "Twight children": The Street Children of Johannesburg." Journal of Multicultural Counseling and Development, 17(2): 85-89. Hosseini. S. H. (2006). "The Condition of Work and Street Children in Iran", Social Welfare Quarterly, 5(19): 155-174. -Hatty, S., N. Davis, and S. Burke (1994). "No Exit: Violence, Gender and the Streets." Australian Journal of Social Issues, 24(4): 230-240. Kidd, S. and M. Carroll, (2007) "Coping and Suicidality among Homeless Youth," Journal of Adolescence 30(2): 283-296. Kilbride, R, & Kilbride, J. (1990). Changing Family Life in East Africa: Women and Children at Risk. University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press. Kashefi Esmaeilzadeh, H. (1999) "The condition of street children in Mashhad," M.A. Thesis, Faculty of Law and Political Sciences, University of Tehran. Le Roux, J. (1996) "Street children in South Africa: Findings from Interviews on the Background of Street Children in Pretoria, South Africa." Adolescence, 31(122): 423–431. Lusk, M. (1992). "Street Children of Rio de Janeiro," International Social Work, 35(3): 293-305. Lusk, M., F. Peralta, and G.Vest, (1989). "Street Children of Juarez: A Field Study," International Social Work, 32(3): 289-302. Lahsa'i Zadeh, Abdul Ali and Hojatollah Ashrafi (2002) "The Factor Leading to Child Labor; A Review (A Case Study of Kashan City)," A Quarterly Journal of Cultural Research, 16(1, 2): 105- 136. Nixon, D. (1991). "A Street is not a Home". Rotarian 9: 30-33. Patel, S .(1990). "Street Children Hotel Boys and Children of Pavement Dwellers and Construction Workers in Bombay: How They Meet Their Daily Needs". Environmental and Urbanization, 2(2): 9-26. Prescott, J.W. (1977). Child Abuse in America: Slaughter of the Innocents, Slaughter of the Innocents. Hustler. Qjanuga, D. (1990). "Kaduna Beggar Children: A Study of Child Abuse and Neglect in Northern Nigeria". Child Welfare, 69(4): 371-380. Raisdana, F. (2003). "Children Labour, Concepts Viewpoints", Social Welfare Quarterly, 2(7): 231-247. Rafferty, Y and M. Shinn (1991). "The Impact of Homelessness on Childern". American Psychologist, 46(11): 1170-1179. Rew, L. M. Taylor, N.Y. Thomas and R.D.Yockey (2001). "Correlates of Resilience in Homeless Adolescents," Journal of Nursing Scholarship, 33(1): 33–40. Richter, L. (1989). "Street Children: The Nature and Scope of the Problem in Southern Africa." Child Care Worker, 6(7): 11-14. Rosa, C. S., R. de Sousa, and G.Ebrahim, (1992)."The Street Children of Recife: A Study of Their Background". Journal of Applied Pediatrics, 38(1): 34-40. Sanders, T. (1987). "Brazilian Street Children: Who They Are." United Field Service International Report 17: Latin America, Indianapolis, IN. Sappington, A. A. (2000). "Childhood Abuse as a Possible Locus for Early Intervention in to Problems of Violence and Psychopathology". Aggression and Violent Behavior. 5(3): 255-266 Subrahmanyam, Y, and R. Sondhi, (1990). "Child Porters: Psychosocial Profile of Street Children". International Journal of Social Work, 51(4): 577- 582. Shavardi, T. (2002) "A perspective on the conditions and causes of street children in Iran," proceedings of the first national conference on the social pathology in Iran, Tehran: Agah Publisher. Statistical Center of Iran (2006). Census of Population and Housing. Tehran, Iran Tavallaee , H., H. Rafiey , and A. Biglarian , (2010). " Relation between Child labor and Social Development and Welfare ", Social Welfare Quarterly 9(35): 301-336. Tacon, R (1982). "Carlinhos: The Hard Gloss of City Polish". UNICEF News 111(1): 4–6. Tellez, G. (1976). Gamines. Bogotd: Editorial Tbmis. -UNICEF. (1986). Children in Especially Difficult Circumstances: Supporting Annex, Exploitation of Working and Street Children. New York: United Nations Children's Fund. Visano L. (1990). "The Socialization of Street Children: The Development and Transformation of Identities." Sociological Studies of Child Development. 3: 139–161. Vameghi , M. (2006). "Street Children in Iran and Governmental Approaches", Social Welfare Quarterly, 5(19): 175-203. Vameghi , M., H. S ajjadi , ; H. Rafiey , and A. Rashidian , (2010). " Systematic Review of Studies on Street children in Iran in recent Decade: Poverty, a Risk Factor for Becoming A Street child ", Social Welfare Quarterly, 9(35): 337-378. Wright J, and D. Kaminsky (1993). "Health and Social Conditions of Street Children in Honduras". American Journal of Diseases of Children, 147(3): 279-283 . Zargar, F., A. Moradi, , and S. Imani (2009). "A Comparison of Personality Characteristics in Runaway and Ordinary Single and Married Females in Isfahan", Thought and Behavior in Clinical Psychology, 10: 47-58.
