PSYCHO-SOCIAL AND NUTRITIONAL STATUS OF STREET CHILDREN IN COMPARISON TO SCHOOL CHILDREN: A CASE OF ELDORET TOWN

Abstract

In most developing countries the number of children growing up on the streets of the world's cities is rising at an alarming rate. There is scanty research on the effect of such a life style on the psychosocial and nutritional status of these children. The goal of this study was therefore to examine the social networks, temperament and nutritional status of street based children compared to schoolchildren with a poor housing background. Our psychosocial research methods included qualitative and ethnographic techniques combined with standardised socio-metric and psychometric tests. Snowball sampling was used to identify the study groups. Four distinct groups of 100 children each were randomly selected. The street children were grouped as either living ‘on' or ‘of' the street. The school children comprised of those either living at home with a family or those living in a shelter under the care of social services. The Maastricht Social Network Analysis (MSNA) and psychometric Revised Dimensions of Temperament Survey (DOTS-R) tests were used to determine the social networking capacity and temperament of the children. Nutritional status was based on weight and height. Skinfold measurement was used to determine percentage body fat (%BF) and fat free mass (FFM). Our results show a mean age of 13.34 years for all the four groups of children. Both the “on” the street and “of” street children did not go beyond lower primary school and they lived by scavenging. The children living at home and at the shelter had a balanced network between family, friends and social service providers. Both the ‘on and ‘of' the street children had a significantly higher level of underweight (p