The quality of life of ‘street children’ accommodated at three shelters in Pretoria: an exploratory study

Abstract

This research project is an exploratory study that aims to describe and examine the state and nature of the quality of life of street children accommodated at three shelters. A non‐probability sample of 48 street children at three shelters was purposively selected. An interview schedule was constructed and administered to gather data. The statistical analyses comprised descriptive statistics, correlation analysis and the computation of the Kruskal–Wallis test statistics to compare the three shelters. Thematic content analysis was used to analyse data from open‐ended questions. The results suggest that the quality of life of the participants in this study was depressed due to lack of access or substandard educational and medical facilities, or depressed material conditions at the shelters. Furthermore, the results suggest that the participants who were accommodated at shelters that encouraged involvement in income‐generating activities were more likely to experience a compromise of their emotional well‐being than their counterparts who were not involved in income‐generating activities.