Tenacity, Purpose in Life and Quality of Interpersonal Relationships Among Street Children in the Vaal Triangle Townships of South Africa

Abstract

The study is an investigation into tenacity, purpose in life and quality of interpersonal relationships among street children in the Vaal Triangle townships in the Gauteng Province of South Africa. Two hundred and sixteen participants made up of 54 hardcore, 54 sheltered, 54 part-time street children and 54 non-street children (as control group) took part in the study. Kobasa’s Hardness Scale and the Antonvsky’s Scale of Sense of Coherence were administered to them to test for tenacity. Crumbaugh’s Purpose in Life Scale and the Sociability Scale developed by the Human Science Research Council of South Africa were administered for information on purpose in life and quality of interpersonal relationships, respectively. Hardcore street children were more tenacious than the non-street children. The hardcore street children had a lower level of purpose in life and also a lower quality of interpersonal relationships than the part-time and non-street children respectively. Rehabilitation programmes for hardcore street children should take into consideration that they are very tenacious, have a lower level of purpose in life and a low quality of interpersonal relationships compared to other children.