Elsevier

Child Abuse & Neglect

Volume 24, Issue 11, November 2000, Pages 1431-1441
Child Abuse & Neglect

Gender differences in Brazilian street youth’s family circumstances and experiences on the street

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0145-2134(00)00202-7Get rights and content

Abstract

Objectives: It has been proposed that homeless street girls are more likely to be from dysfunctional families and exhibit psychological distress than homeless street boys, reflecting cultural factors that result in differential norms for male and female behavior. The current analysis examined whether male and female street youth in a mid-sized Brazilian city differed in their family circumstances and day-to-day functioning on the street.

Methods: The opportunity sample consisted of 33 male (mean age 14.3, range 10–17 years) and 33 female (mean age 14.6, range 11–18 years) street youth who participated in a sentence completion task and structured interview examining family experiences and ability to meet daily needs on the street.

Results: Consistent with the cultural hypothesis, girls described more negative family backgrounds than boys (e.g., they were more likely to have left home because of conflict or abuse, and reported more negative relationships with their parents). However, girls’ functioning on the street was similar to, and in some cases more positive than, that of boys (e.g., fewer girls reported police violence and begging to earn money).

Conclusions: The few gender differences that emerged in this study offer little support for the cultural hypothesis. The findings make sense if local factors, such as services available for male and female youth and public response to street youth, are considered. It appears that street youth differ in their experiences depending on local circumstances, highlighting the need for caution in generalizing about the situation of street youth in different countries.

Introduction

THE UNITED NATIONS defines a street youth as “any boy or girl . . . for whom the street (in the widest sense of the word, including unoccupied dwellings, wasteland, etc.) has become his or her habitual abode and/or source of livelihood; and who is inadequately protected, supervised, or directed by responsible adults” (in Lusk, 1992, p. 294). Despite the inclusion of girls in this definition, the majority of youth found on the street and included in research studies are in fact male. In Latin America, where nearly half of the world’s street youth are estimated to be found (Barker & Knaul, 1991), researchers typically observe more boys than girls on the streets (Rizzini & Lusk, 1995). In recent years, however, the number of girls on the streets has increased and attempts to work with female street youth are hampered by lack of knowledge about how the experiences of girls on the street differ from those of their male peers Hutz and Forster 1996, Hutz and Koller 1997, Martins 1996.

Gender has been identified as an important organizer of many aspects of human development. In most cultures, different roles and behaviors have historically been considered appropriate for males and females Ferreira 1995, Kohlberg 1966, Rossi 1985, Weisner et al 1994, Williams and Best 1994. Although cultures differ in the specific behaviors that are considered acceptable for males and females, there are certain similarities that are relevant to the situation of homeless youngsters. In most of the world’s cultures, women and girls are traditionally kept close to home because of child-care and family responsibilities and for their own protection, whereas men and boys are encouraged to go out of the home for recreation and to earn a living. As a result of this separation of the masculine and feminine spheres, in many cultures street girls appear to be more “out of place” than street boys Hutz and Forster 1996, Menezes and Brasil 1998, Rosemberg 1996.

Because the presence of girls on the streets violates cultural norms for female behavior, it has been proposed that homeless girls are more likely to be from dysfunctional families and exhibit psychological distress than their male peers (e.g., Aptekar 1994, Aptekar and Ciano-Federoff 1999). In this view, the presence of boys on the street is thought to reflect a deliberate survival strategy by impoverished families who socialize sons into early independence in an appropriate male context—the street. In contrast, the presence of girls on the street is thought to reflect family dysfunction which has led to a breakdown in the socialization process. Thus, although boys and girls may share the common condition of being “on the street” they may be on distinct developmental trajectories, with homeless girls being at higher risk of negative outcomes than their male peers. In a recent test of the cultural hypothesis, Aptekar and Ciano-Federoff (1999) examined gender differences in the psychological functioning and life situation of a Kenyan sample of 42 street boys and 19 street girls. Statistically significant differences emerged on only one of four measures of psychological well-being, but based on ethnographic analyses the authors concluded that boys showed more positive functioning than girls. Additional research on this topic is scarce; two recent investigations of street youth in other parts of Africa do not explicitly discuss gender differences Matchinda 1999, Swart-Kruger and Donald 1996. Therefore, it is impossible to know whether similar gender-related patterns exist in other populations of street youth. The current paper builds on prior research by examining gender differences in the experiences of Brazilian homeless girls and boys prior to leaving home and on the street.

One issue addressed in this paper is whether male and female street youth differ in their family backgrounds. In Latin America, the presence of children and adolescents working and/or living on the streets is typically attributed to structural factors like high birth rates, urban-to-rural migration, economic stagnation, unequal distribution of wealth and lack of government welfare programs (e.g., Barker and Knaul 1991, Carrizosa and Poertner 1992, Lusk 1989, Peralta 1992). However, given the large number of impoverished families in Latin America, it is unlikely that poverty alone can explain why some youngsters leave home to live on the street (for a thoughtful discussion of this issue, see Hecht, 1998). In a review of studies conducted in Latin America, Raffaelli (1997) concluded that the families of homeless street youth were more troubled than those of impoverished youngsters working on the street but living at home. For example, more homeless than working youth experienced rural-to-urban migration, parental death or absence, and physical abuse prior to leaving home. This review suggests that family disruption may be an important factor in the street youth phenomenon. However, because most studies did not report findings separately for males and females, gender differences were not examined in this review.

Several empirical studies have examined gender differences in the experiences of Latin American street youth. One study that included 200 homeless street youth aged 9 to 18 (25% female) in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, revealed that homeless boys and girls did not differ in their family situation (e.g., parental death or absence, family contact) (Campos et al., 1994). Similarly, two small-scale studies conducted in another Brazilian city reported no gender differences in why children were on the street, the activities they pursued in street settings (Silva et al., 1998) or their social support networks (Brito, 1999). The current analysis extends prior research by examining gender differences in a range of family variables, including subjective aspects of family relationships.

A second issue addressed in this paper is whether boys and girls show differential adjustment to the street. Specifically, we examine whether boys and girls differ in how well they are able to meet their needs on the street. Given that these youngsters have left home (whether by design or involuntarily), what impact does street life have on their well-being? Again, little is known about this topic. In the process of conducting a census of street youth in São Paulo, Rosemberg (1996) observed that the activities of male and female street youth differed, with males playing and working more than females, and females begging more than males. This study offers anecdotal support for the notion that male youth are better able to adapt to street life. In contrast, Campos and colleagues (1994) reported that homeless girls were less likely to go hungry than boys, and more likely to have someone who would protect them, help them if they were hurt, and give them a place to sleep. In an effort to expand the knowledge base about how girls and boys fare on the streets, the current study examined gender differences in youngsters’ ability to meet an array of daily needs.

Prior research on gender differences in the experiences of street youth has been limited and does not permit a critical evaluation of the cultural hypothesis, which posits that homeless girls are from more dysfunctional families and experience higher levels of psychological distress than homeless boys. In an attempt to learn more about the family backgrounds and life situations of homeless street girls, we explore gender differences in a sample of homeless Brazilian children and adolescents. Drawing on both qualitative and quantitative data, we examine whether homeless boys and girls differ in their family situation and in their ability to meet basic needs on the street.

Section snippets

Procedures

The study was conducted in Porto Alegre, a mid-sized city (population 1.5 million) in Southern Brazil. Following procedures approved by Institutional Review Boards at the co-Investigators’ home universities, interviewers approached potential respondents in institutional settings (e.g., shelters, open houses providing meals and recreational activities), explained the study, and invited them to participate in a two-part interview. The first part of the interview consisted of a sentence completion

Family situation and relationships

Three aspects of family experiences were examined: reasons for leaving home, current family relations (structured interview), and subjective aspects of parent-child and family relationships (sentence completion task).

Discussion

Scholars have proposed that male and female street children and adolescents may experience differential developmental trajectories that reflect cultural norms regarding gender-appropriate behavior. According to the cultural hypothesis Aptekar 1994, Aptekar and Ciano-Federoff 1999, impoverished families encourage their sons to take to the streets at an early age in order to begin the process of becoming financially independent. In contrast, the presence of girls on the street is thought to

Limitations and future directions

There are obvious limitations in the current study, including the nonrandom and small sample and the retrospective examination of family variables. These limitations are shared by most studies of homeless youth, and are difficult to overcome. Methodological improvements would include replicating this study in different cities and countries, obtaining a larger sample, conducting prospective longitudinal research, and obtaining concurrent data from the families of origin of street youth. Another

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    This research was supported by grants to Silvia H. Koller and to students at the Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul from CNPq (grant No. 520140/97-4), FAPERGS (grant No. 97/0075.0), PET/CAPES, PROPESQ/UFRGS; and by grants to Marcela Raffaelli from the University of Nebraska Research Council, Institute for Ethnic Studies, and Office on International Affairs.

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