Study On Street Children Stress And Coping Style Between 9 And 17 Years Old In Mali

The street children are among the most vulnerable in all societies and excessively suffer the negative impacts of poverty, violence and inequality. In general, the living conditions in urban areas are better than those in rural areas, therefore, children from rural areas go to urban areas in search of better living conditions. The conditions of children on the street are bad and human basic needs are not met, such as food, shelter and protection. The lack of protection increases their risk of being raped and exposes them alcohol, drugs and physical, sexual and mental abuse. In cities, it is very easy to have access to alcohol and drugs. These substances are a way for them to manage their stress of frustration, cold, violence, lack of occupational diseases, etc.The crimes that street children suffer aren’t investigated and a few citizens are willing to defend or protect them. To this effect, if there is no legal protection rendered to them, the children sometimes take the opportunity to fill this void themselves. They organize themselves into self-defense groups. Multiple factors lead to their being on the street, such as poverty, illness and the death of parents, etc.For this research, we selected two bus stations in two different neighborhoods in Bamako: Sogoniko and Medina Coura. We selected these two places because most buses depart from these stations to neighboring countries. Both locations receive transportation vehicles, passengers vehicles and goods from other sub regions. One hundred and twenty (120) street children aged between 9 and 17 participate in our study.We used individual interviews, focus group discussion and interviews with people other than street children for collection of data for the research. All children in both areas were interviewed individually and then in group discussion. As they possess a very low level of education, so, the investigators translated to them all questions into the national language which is "Bambara". During the interview, the responses of respondents were recorded and their photos have been also taken. Only children who were seen on the streets were interviewed. At the time of the interview, children who felt embarrassed to answer questions from the public were taken to private places. Four assistants were recruited. The investigation lasted three months and fifteen days. Early in the investigation, the children refused to participate because no money was given. Thus, each child was rewarded with a small amount of money. But, some street children refused yet to participate. The results of our study revealed that many reasons push children to abandon their families for the streets and survive by legal and illegal activities. They arrive to make their place in the streets to survive and meet the basic needs of life. The majority of children living in two areas (sogoniko and Medina) station have been pushed by poverty. Parents do not have the means to meet the needs of their children, to this effect, children are forced to leave the family to fend for themselves on the streets. The results of our study showed that also those street children are not into the same activities; and they do not earn their living in the same way. They work in various activities and in the informal sector such as selling, begging, repairing motorcycle, shine shoes, carry language and car wash. Despite the extremely difficult conditions which these children face on the streets, results showed that they are stressed by negative events such as hunger, humiliation, physical violence and diseases. Nevertheless, they practiced the strategies of three coping styles namely productive style, nonproductive and references to others to cope on the streets. Findings showed that children in Sogoniko area 1 used the strategies such as:solve problems (33.33%), relaxing/entertaining (26.67%), focus on the positive (8.33%), followed by strategies:reduce tension (13.33%), do nothing (8.33%) and in last strategies:social support (5%) and invest in close a friend (5%). Children in Medina coura area 2 used strategies:reduce tension (33.33%), do nothing (20%), ignore the problem (11.67%), solve problems (13.33%), relaxing/entertain (15%) and strategy invest in close friends (6.67%). The most strategies used by children in Sogonikoareal is the strategies of coping style productive (68.33%)following by the strategies of non-productive style (21.67%), and the end strategies of style refers to others (10%). Street children in Medina coura area 2, use more strategies of nonproductive style, (65%), following by strategies of productive style (28.33%) and strategies of references to others style (6.67%).The interview focus group discussion with children allowed us to understand that malnutrition is a big health problem experienced by street children. For example, in our study out of five children, none gets to take three meals a day. That means the three meals daily is not assured, they are constantly malnourished and in furthermore, they have no jobs, they get thin through hunger. With their hunger they suffer from a lot of disease such as:Malaria, tiredness, stomach pain, chest pain, fever, headache, toothache, flu, coughs. However, they don’t go to hospitals, they used traditional treatments or buy medicine on the streets. Most of them know drugs even small boys.