Volume 18, No. 6, 2021
Socioeconomic And Psychological Determinants Of Runaway Among Street Children: A Thematic Review
Dr. Wahida Anjum, Faisal Mumtaz Chahal, Syed Messum Ali Kazmi, Ms. Saba Ehsaan, Dr. Zainab Qazi, Dr. Sarfraz Mahmood
Abstract
Children running away from home are a complex social, economic, institutional, and administrative issue. This study unveils the phenomenological lived experiences of street children. Twenty in-depth semi-structured interviews were conducted with street children by enlisting them and their parent's demographic characteristics. The thematic analysis showed that street children faced anomalies of dysfunctional families, insecure attachment patterns, and the negative influence of the joint family system. They experienced high levels of physical, emotional, psychological, and sexual abuse by family members, strict discipline, and harsh punishment by madrassa and school teachers. Low socioeconomic status, child labor, role reversal, peer pressure, and lack of social skills contributed to the phenomenon of runaways. It led to increased abuse in the streets by the drug mafia, sexual assault, human trafficking, and sexually transmitted disease. Homesickness and seeing parents' love for their children encouraged them to reconcile with their families, but the rejection made them habitual of runaway. The findings implied that a multidisciplinary strategy should be used to rehabilitate street children, involving parents, community members, local religious leaders, pediatricians, clinical psychologists, NGOs, law enforcement agencies, and the government. The study has novel findings for exploring the link between the demographic characteristics of the children and their parents. The internal and external motives are explored before and after the runaway, street life challenges, their struggle to reconcile with the family, and coping strategies to readjust in streets or families in Pakistani culture. Thus, these findings will enrich scientific understanding to study this topic further.
Pages: 7836-7851
Keywords: street children, runaway, thematic analysis, socioeconomic, psychological determinants