Ecological self-image and behaviours for children living on the streets of Harare

ABSTRACT

The present study sought to explore the relationship between street childhood and adolescent ecological self-image. The research objectives were to investigate the nature of ecological self-image for street children and to determine the ecological behaviours for street children in Harare. A psycho-ethnographic research design was employed. The participants were 16 street-living adolescent children aged between 12 and 18 years and six key informants, all in Harare, Zimbabwe. A total of 22 participants took part in this study. Snowballing was used to recruit key informant interviewees, while purposive sampling was used to recruit participants for focus group discussions, in-depth interview, and participant and non-participant observations. Thematic content analysis was used for analysing the data. Data analysis revealed that the adolescent street children's ecological self-image is largely negative. These street children seemed to have estranged from their biological families to identify with the streets.

KEYWORDS:

• Ecological self-image
• ecological behaviours
• psycho-ethnography
• street children

1. Introduction

The institution of street children is global, alarming and escalating (CA, 2000). Street children searching for their livelihoods have become a permanent mark in the urban landscape of most developing countries including Zimbabwe (Muchini, 2001). The numbers of street children populating the urban morphology worldwide is almost impossible to know; nonetheless, the United Nations estimates the numbers to be around 150 million and swelling daily (CA, 2000).

In recent years, there has been mounting disquiet over the exponential explosion of the ‘uncouth’ street children population in Zimbabwe (see Muchini, 2001; Chigonga, 2007). By 2000, street children in Zimbabwe numbered 12,000, of whom 5000 were dwelling in Harare alone (UNICEF, 2003). No other study has been carried out to count the number of street children in Zimbabwe since then. Subsequent studies have continued to quote the same figure (Mhizha, 2010; Sebastian et al., 2010). It is plausibly assumable that the actual contemporary street children population in Zimbabwe may have transcended the 12,000 digit. With this in mind, it is arguable that the street children phenomenon has reached epidemic levels both globally and locally. The upsurge in street children figures is backgrounded by a disquieting HIV and AIDS epidemic, plus the socio-politico-economic crisis that bedevilled Zimbabwe in the recent past. Zimbabwe has been stalled in a staggering socio-politico-economic crisis (Murerwa, 2006; RBZ, 2005; Tibaijuka, 2005).

The problem under investigation in the current study is whether adolescent street children live and work in an eco-developmentally risky context for the development of positive ecological self-image. This is in the context where very few studies have particularly explored the psychological functioning of the street children in Zimbabwe (Muchini, 1994). Indeed, some studies imply that there is need for researching the street children institution. Researchers such as Dube (1999), Ennew (1994, 2003), Muchini (2001), Ruparanganda (2008) and Rurevo & Bourdillon (2003) argue, for instance, that the street ecology poses a risk to normal child development. Ennew (2003) argue that the contemporary world, which claims to be child-friendly, should afford healthy development opportunities to the street children. For street children, healthy development means they should have opportunities for the development of senses of independence, self-efficacy and self-esteem as they mature (Mechanic, 1991; Tudorić-Ghemo, 2005). Some studies have found self-image to be a chief determinant of child development, psychological functioning and behaviour (Harter, 1990; Oosterwegel & Oppenheimer, 1993a, 1993b, 2002; Branden, 1994).

Furthermore, other researchers have surmised that street childhood is risky for positive self-image development (Vostanis et al., 1998; Narayan et al., 1999). Baumeister et al. (2003) argue that positive self-image is not only desirable in its own right, but that it is also the fundamental psychological source from which other positive behaviours and outcomes are derived. Self-esteem has ‘profound consequences for every aspect of human existence’ because all psychological problems ranging from ‘anxiety and depression, to fear of intimacy or of success, to spouse battery or child molestation, are traceable to the problem of low self-esteem (Branden, 1994:5, 12). Thus, self-esteem seems significant for human functioning. It was Albert Ellis, a prominent clinical psychologist, who argued that negative self-image is possibly one of the greatest problems for human optimal functioning (Epstein, 2001). However, Baumeister et al. contended that research on self-esteem has proliferated only in western individualist cultures and that this needs to be extended in other societies (Africa included). Researchers agreed that self-image significantly develops at adolescence (Oosterwegel & Oppenheimer, 1993a, 1993b, 2002; Santrock, 2002, 2004; Steinberg, 2002; Baumeister et al., 2003). Muchini (2001) observed that most of the street children in Zimbabwe are adolescents, while Le Roux (1995) had earlier observed that most of street children in South Africa are adolescents with the mean age of 13 years. It is imperative, therefore, to explore the psychological implications of street childhood. The objectives for the current study were to determine the nature of ecological self-image for street children in Harare, and to determine the ecological behaviours for street children in Harare.

2. Literature review

2.1 Ecology and street childhood

This section reviews the literature on ecological self-image and behaviours among street children. Literature reviewed in this section includes the behaviours of street children, adolescent self-image and the conceptual framework that guides the current study. The social identity theory by Tajfel (1981, 1982) is the conceptual framework for the current study.

2.1.1 Street children's behaviour on the streets

Beazley (2003) wrote that street children cope with street challenges by appropriating urban niches within the city, in which they are able to earn money, feel safe and find enjoyment. Beazley suggests that these street children use such spaces, which have become territories in which identities are constructed, where alternative communities are formed and where the street children create collective solutions for the dilemmas they confront in their everyday lives.

Regarding substance use on the streets, street children seem to have a propensity to abuse psychoactive drugs, with many using such drugs to counteract the effects of pain and hunger (UNICEF, 2003). Muchini (2001) observes that the drugs also reduce feelings of shame so that the street children can do any job without any worry when their survival hangs in balance. Muchini & Nyandiya-Bundy (1991) observed that street children were involved in drug abuse, substance abuse and sniffing glue every day. Davison & Neale (1982) iterated that sniffing glue can cause psychotic states, leading to excited dis-inhibited reactions accompanied by confusion. Makope (2006), himself a former street child, suggested that drugs help these street children get away from stresses and unhappiness. When sober, street children always think and worry about how they can change their circumstances. Glue is the most popular substance abused by street children in Zimbabwe (Makope, 2006). South African street children sniff petrol, glue, benzene, paint thinners, nail varnish, gasoline and mandrax, smoke dagga, drink alcohol and take cocaine (Jansen, Richter, Griesel, & Joubert, 1990 as cited in Tudorić-Ghemo, 2005). Arthur (2012), as does Mhizha (2010), also argues that street children are vulnerable to streetism, which is the manner of life of street children as they live on the streets and adapt to the challenges they face on the streets. The street children would then behave in ways including violence, abuse of psychoactive substances, dirt deportment, antisocial tendencies and permissive sexual behaviours (Mhizha, 2010; Arthur, 2012).

On the streets, the street children are also vulnerable to violence and physical abuse. New and younger children on the streets are at the mercy of bullying by older boys and girls who demand anything inclusive of money, food, sex and clothes (Makope, 2006). Those children who cannot stand fights live a sad life, especially when counting money or eating because crew leaders can snatch the money or food by force. Seniority is then acquired through tenure in streets and through fighting (Makope, 2006). According to Makope (2006), these seniors or crew leaders have lost interest in changing their lives so they hardly leave the streets. Age tends to influence the risks of violence to which street children are exposed and their responses to violence (Benitez, 2007). Thus, younger street children face more violence. It has been observed that street boys tend to replicate violence as aggressors (Raffaelli, 2000).

Not only do street children confront physical abuse, they also have to contend with gender-based violence. Gender thus tends to influence the risks of violence to which street children are exposed and their responses to violence (Benitez, 2007). Indeed, gender-based violence is a major public health concern and infringement of human sexuality and reproductive rights for female street children (Osinowo, 1992; Fawole et al., 2004). Girls working and living on the streets tend to internalise violence and may be more vulnerable to ongoing abuse and victimisation (Barker et al., 2000). Girls also tend to be vulnerable to additional forms of violence in crisis situations when compared with men and boys, and are more likely (although by no means exclusively) to be subjected to sexual violence, often with limited access to preventative measures and other health services (Barker et al., 2000).

Fawole et al. (2004) wrote that female street children are particularly vulnerable to all forms of violence including sexual exploitation by men. Men prefer young girls as sexual partners because they assume these young girls are sexually inexperienced and as such are less likely to be infected with sexually transmitted disease (Osinowo, 1992; Fawole et al., 2004). Fawole et al. argued that in a society with poorly developed social network and intervention, many of the girls accept it as their lot and fear being stigmatised if they should report such abuses. The girls who report the abuses are exposed to numerous hazards ranging from physical violence to loss of wares, accidents, robbery, kidnapping and even murder for ritual purposes (Fawole et al., 2004). Female street children who are victims of sexual abuse are therefore less likely to report the abuse.

According to Fawole et al. (2004), the most troubling finding perhaps is that some of these female street children are sexually exploited and forced into prostitution with the risk of unintended pregnancies and contracting sexually transmitted infections including HIV. Most abused girls do not report the crimes because of the stigma attached to the issue (Fawole et al., 2004). Although society has sympathy for victims of sexual violence, it also visits them with some stigma (Fawole et al., 2004). The types of sexual abuse experienced by the street children include inappropriate touches, verbal abuses and rape (Fawole et al., 2004). Ruparanganda (2008) also wrote that female street children on the streets face gender-based violence and cites them complaining that they were oppressed by the jealous street boys. Ruparanganda (2008) rather argued that street girls are an ‘otherised or objectified category’, meaning that they are a marginalised and exploited group. These female street youths complained that they are barred from entering the streets where they are supposed to obtain money. The female participants in the study by Ruparanganda complained that male street youths barred them from entering into the streets for very flimsy reasons. Such reasons included allegations that as female street children they were not courageous or strong enough to resist or flee away from the rampaging police; yet according to the female participants the real reason was that their male partners feared that other men would take them away. What is noteworthy is that the male participants in the study by Ruparanganda argued that moving around with females would expose them to bad luck, especially during their menstrual cycles. Ruparanganda further reports that female and weaker street children have nightmarish encounters when they come into the street. Most of the street children decried that they were initially intoxicated and then raped or sodomised by stronger male street children (Ruparanganda, 2008). Male street children defended their abuse of female street children, saying that the street is for males only. Other street children blamed the abuse, saying that the female street children were very permissive sexually, yet they were being fended for by these male street youths they were cheating on. Female street children complained that the male street children treated them like sub-humans. However, according to Ruparanganda, the views male street youths had on females mirrored those views that men in mainstream society have on women.

Regarding health and hygiene, street children seem to face challenges. UNICEF (2003) observed that many street children look sick, and suffer from coughs, watering eyes and sores. UNICEF further observed that the street children also look filthy, and live in surroundings with poor sanitation, which could result in spread of diseases like cholera and dysentery. Clinics are inaccessible to these street children due to screening procedures, which precede the issue of exemption certificates (UNICEF, 2003). Since these exemption certificates are issued by the Department of Social Welfare, most street children do not attempt to obtain them for fear of being rounded up for being vagabonds. UNICEF also maintained that street children suffer from scabies, stomach ailments, bilharzia, drug-related problems, respiratory problems and sexually transmitted infections. Street children were found to be dirty and unkempt (Muchini, 2001). These street children reportedly defecated everywhere like dogs (Ruparanganda, 2008). The street children are exposed to the vagaries of weather (extremes of cold or heat), to insects and reptiles, and to hunger and deprivation (Fawole et al., 2004). The street children, furthermore, have severely cracked lips, sore eyes, sore throats, nasal problems and burns from the cold (Muchini, 1994). Headaches, nausea, excessive thirst and rapid weight loss are also common among street children (Schurink, 1993).

Street children also reportedly experienced dehydration, malaria, pneumonia and other diseases associated with malnutrition and sexual behaviour (Campbell & Ntsabane, 1996). Similarly, Schurink (1993) found that many street children experience general skin problems, scabies, facial blemishes, spots and sores around the mouth and nose. Makope (2006) observed that street children have problems with lice that live on the waistbands of trousers and in the turn-ups of their pants. These insects infest people who neither bath nor wash their clothes.

2.1.2 Adolescent self-image

This section reviews the literature on the implications of adolescent self-image. The section looks at available literature on how self-image influences behaviour for both street children and non-street children. Researchers agree that the adolescent stage is marked also by the development in self-image (Rosenberg, 1965; Erikson, 1968; Harter, 1990; Oosterwegel & Oppenheimer, 1993a; McGee & Williams, 2000). Self-image is an important construct in the social sciences in general, and psychology in particular, as demonstrated by the regularity with which self-image enhancement is identified as a major focus of concern in diverse settings (Branden, 1994; Epstein, 2001).

The importance of positive self-image transcends traditional disciplinary barriers and is an important factor for both the development and adjustment of children (Harter, 1990). According to Baumeister et al. (2003), self-esteem or global self-image refers to how much value people place on themselves and is the evaluative component of self-knowledge. According to these authors, positive self-image points to a highly favourable global evaluation of the self while negative self-image reflects an unfavourable definition of the self. Self-image may mean a precise, justified, balanced appreciation of one's worth as a person and one's successes and competencies, but conversely it can also refer to an exaggerated, egotistical, grandiose, unwarranted sense of conceited superiority over others (Baumeister et al., 2003). Similarly, negative self-image can be either an accurate, well-founded understanding of one's shortcomings as a person or a distorted, even pathological, sense of insecurity and inferiority. Baumeister et al. interestingly note that self-image is a perception rather than reality and consider self-image as referring ‘to a person's belief about whether he or she is intelligent and attractive, for example, and it does not necessarily say anything about whether the person actually is intelligent and attractive’ (2003:2).

Baumeister et al. (2003) noted that positive self-image is not only desirable in its own right, but is also the fundamental psychological source from which all positive behaviours and outcomes are derived. In the same vein, it has been echoed categorically elsewhere that self-image has ‘profound consequences for every aspect of our existence’ (Branden, 1994:5). Furthermore, it has been argued that there is no ‘single psychological problem – from anxiety and depression, to fear of intimacy or of success, to spouse battery or child molestation that is not traceable to the problem of low self-esteem’ (Branden, 1994:12). Furthermore, Mecca, for example, is cited as saying that ‘virtually every social problem can be traced to people's lack of self-love’ (Epstein, 2001:10). Albert Ellis, an eminent clinical psychologist is even convinced that negative self-image or low self-esteem ‘is the greatest sickness known to man or woman because it's conditional’ (as cited in Epstein 2001:72). However, Baumeister et al. contend that these concerns about self-esteem are a peculiar feature of western individualist cultures as the search for high self-esteem is not a universal human motive, but a cultural or ideological artefact.

This study focuses on ecological self-image among street children. Beazley (2003) argues that street children are seen to be committing a social violation, as their very presence contradicts state ideological discourse on family values and ideas about public order. Rurevo & Bourdillon (2003) also observed that motorists hate these children who ‘own’ parking bays. Ecological self-image is defined as the street children's mental picture or identification with the places where they worked or lived (Mhizha, 2010). In other words, it involves how street children evaluate themselves relative to the places where they live or work.

2.2 Theoretical framework

2.2.1 Social identity theory

According to Parker (2012) the social identity theory by Tajfel (1981, 1982) can be used to understand ecological self-image or self-concept among street children. Thus, for this study, the ‘sense of place’ or the symbolic meaning of places and attitudes towards certain environments or the identification with place is best explained by the social identity theory. For Parker (2012) social identity is the identity given to people by others, and even the identity they give to themselves based on the individuals’ appearance or behaviour in a situation. Parker used social identity theory to explain the nature and importance of self-image and resultant behaviours among street children. Parker reasoned that street children develop a street identity that is consistent with their self-concept. This involves accepting street category, commitment to social relationships with other street children. Parker says street children face challenges on the streets, such as mental illness, and behave in certain ways consistent with their ecology. Such ecological behaviours include alcohol or drug abuse, violence and criminal tendencies.

Parker (2012) and Christian & Abrams (2003) report that there is a lack of a theoretical framework in street identity literature which they filled using the social identity theory by Tajfel (1982). The social identity theory proposes that people create social identities based on social group membership. Members in a group are seen as sharing similar characteristics to each other and as differing from those outside the group (Parker, 2012). Research has shown that street children stop making social comparisons with other groups and would instead compare themselves with others who are street involved.

Thus, it is clear from the literature that street children develop a social identity as street children which influences their self-image. The street children develop an identity linked to their street ecology which then influences their self-image, which again is linked to their environments. Parker (2012) clearly argues that the self-image linked to their places would then influence certain behaviours. This supports the argument in this study that street childhood impacts on ecological self-image, which again is linked to certain ecological behaviours. Researchers (see for example Ennew, 1994, 2003; Ruparanganda, 2008) have reasoned that the street ecology is hazardous for normal child development, while other researchers have found that street childhood impacts negatively on self-image development (Harter, 1990; Mhizha, 2010). Furthermore, self-image has been found to be a chief determinant of child development, psychological functioning and behaviour (Harter, 1990; Oosterwegel & Oppenheimer, 1993a, 1993b, 2002; Branden, 1994).

3. Methodology

The present study, being qualitative and explorative, utilised the psycho-ethnographic approach. This design is important because it affords collection of valid, deep, rich and reliable data. This is a research design involving entry into the participants’ setting for a sustained period to collect psychological data in the contexts within which the participants live. Fieldwork in this study took 10 months. The fieldwork started in January 2010 until October 2010. In psycho-ethnographic research, researchers complete the study through observing, listening and asking questions. Aptekar (1988) pioneered the approach in a study on Columbian street children. Aptekar, a cross-cultural researcher with interests in street children in developing countries, measured emotional and intellectual functioning of street children using participant observations and psychological tests. Psycho-ethnography combines methods rooted in both psychology and anthropology. Data collection methods for this study included key informant interviews, focus group discussions, in-depth interviews, and participant and non-participant observations. Data collection and analysis were entwined to expose areas that may have been missed and shape ensuing data collection.

Ten adolescent street children participated in focus group discussions. There were five female street-living children and five male street-living participants for the focus group discussions. There were two focus group discussion groups composing five participants each. The discussion lasted an hour each. Another six adolescent street children participated in in-depth interviews. The questions that were presented to the street children included questions such as ‘who are you?’, ‘how do you view yourself?’ and ‘what behaviours do you normally engage in?’. The key informants were also asked how they thought street children viewed themselves, how they defined themselves and how they behaved to triangulate the data. Street-living children, according to UNICEF (2003), are those street children who work and sleep on the streets. In other words, street-living children live on the streets and are unlike street-working children who work on the streets and sleep at home. Six key informant interviewees were interviewed in this study. The key informants were officials at the drop-in centre Streets Ahead, the Department of Social Welfare, the Zimbabwe Republic Police (ZRP) and two former street children (one former street-living child while the other was a former street-working child). Snowballing was used to recruit key informant interviewees while purposive sampling was used to recruit participants for focus group discussions, in-depth interviews, and participant and non-participant observations. Snowball sampling refers to a few identified members of a rare population who are asked to identify other members of the population, then those so identified are asked to identify others, and so on, to obtain a non-probability sample or to construct a frame from which to sample. The researchers felt that the final number of 22 participants was sufficient, as the data collected were deemed sufficient. The street children participants were drawn from their hideouts, streets and the drop-in centre in Harare. All participants in the study were drawn from Harare. The researchers appreciated that gaining informed consent was a very fundamental process. No participant was coerced to take part in the research. Subsequently, the researchers sought the informed assent of the participating children and informed consent from their gatekeepers. It has been argued that children legally have no competence for consent (Homan, 1991; Ensign, 2003; Masson, 2004). In Zimbabwe, a child is considered legally a minor until 18 years of age, and street children participating in the current study ranged from 12 to 18 years. In the current study, the gatekeepers were the administrators of the drop-in centres from which the street children were obtained. Informed assent was also sought from fellow base leaders for the street children. Thematic content data analysis was used for the data analysis. Braun & Clarke (2006) argue that thematic content analysis is the most appropriate method for psychological interpretation of data from under-researched populations. Apart from the informed consent obtained from the gatekeepers, the researchers also sought informed consent from the key informants who participated in the current study. Punch (2002) reasons that researchers must have the informed assent of the children they are researching. All of the street children who participated in this study consented voluntarily despite the fact that such informed consent was also obtained from their guardians and the gatekeepers. Anonymity and confidentiality were spelt and respected in the current study.

4. Findings

4.1 Ecological self-image

In this section, the researchers present findings on the ecological self-image of street-living children. It will be shown that street children viewed themselves as urbanites. The street-living adolescent children seemed also to identify with the places in which they live. These street children saw themselves as ‘vana vemutown’ (children of the city) and ‘magunduru’ (those street children who sleep anywhere). These children also identified themselves with the physical environment in which they slept, worked, engaged in recreational activities and hid their personal belongings. These street children had ‘bases’ where they slept. Accordingly, adolescent ecological self-image was mediated by ownership of bases and working zones, with the more fortunate ones appropriating bases and operating zones in prime business areas of the central business district (CBD). The street-living children owning working zones in the CBD which were more valuable seemed to have more pride. Those with stronger physical stamina, fighting ability, respectability and tenure on the streets acquired the leadership at these bases. These base leaders were known as Mamonyas (Giants), Bosses of Mafia, Mafokofoko (Giants), MaYears (Senior Street Men), Foxes or Jivhas (Giants). Some older adolescent street-living girls acquired seniority status that they used in looking after fellow younger girls. These children also exploited these younger girls by marketing them to sex clients and forcing them to beg for them. The senior female adolescent street children also worked together with the Mamonyas in instilling fear into these younger children.

It also emerged that the street children did not tolerate intruders in their bases. In some bases, human stools were used around the base to keep away any intruders. The street children stated that the stools were used to fend off intruders on their bases. Bases where human stools were used for this purpose included the Mukuvisi River Base and The Wrong Turn (in the Kopje area). The base leaders seemed to have a more positive ecological self-image and accrued resources (financial, material and human/sexual) from the base residents as a protection fee. Interestingly, street children slept and ate next to their stools. Some children lived in a house with a toilet, but defecated next to where they slept.

Some street-living adolescent children seemed to have psychological identification with and attachment to a place called Epworth. Epworth is an urban settlement very close to Harare where some poor people working in Harare live. Some street children were born and/or bred in Epworth. Other male street children rented houses in Epworth for their wives while they virtually lived on the streets. Epworth was conducive as a suburb since there are no tap water and electricity charges while the rent is relatively inexpensive. Epworth also provided street children with cheap cemeteries where street children bury the bodies of their deceased street peers. Despite its utility, many street children who rented houses in Epworth looked down upon themselves since the suburb had no tap water and electricity. By late 2006, a room could be rented for as low as $800.00 per month.

However, some male street-living children interestingly claimed ownership or control of Harare city itself. One 17-year-old male adolescent street child claimed: ‘ndini Makwavarara wacho. Ndini Mayor’ (I am Makwavarara. I am the Mayor). Sekesai Makwavarara was the then mayor for Harare. The children claimed to ban anyone from getting into the city, and claimed that they are vana vemutown. For instance, one 18-year-old male street child whose reunification efforts were spurned by his relatives said: ‘vachekera manje kutoramba zvavo kundigamuchira kumba kwavo mutown havachamupindi’ (they have done themselves no good by rejecting me because they won't set foot into the city). Such findings show that street children believed they controlled the urban territory whose inhabitants they claimed to be able to guard and monitor.

The street-living children hated the ‘street kid’ label, chorusing that ‘street haina kuzvara mwana’ (the street has not given birth to any child). The adolescent street children believed that they were better than those leaving in the rural areas and asserted: ‘tiri vemutown hatigare kumusha isu’ (we are town-dwellers we do not live in rural areas). Therefore, street children had a metropolitan ecological image, as they detested working and living in the rural areas. Kumusha or rural areas were infamous for herding domestic animals and tilling land, which these street children abhorred.

Some street-living children slept overnight at Mai Musodzi Hall, a municipal community hall in Mbare where they were shown films and found shelter especially during the rainy season. These street children frequented the hall and some ended up calling themselves ‘vana vaMai Musodzi’ (Mai Musodzi's children). This hall was popular for entertainment and vocational opportunities as the children met their sexual clients there.

4.2 Ecological behaviours

Consistent with the second objective, the research focused on ecological behaviours by the street children. The street children engaged in a number of behaviours that were consistent with their identification with the street. The behaviours included high mobility or being footloose, use of psychoactive substances, engaging in antisocial and criminal tendencies such as stealing and violence, and engaging in multiple sexual relationships. Some key informant interviewees believed that such behavioural tendencies expressed streetism in the street children. For these key informant interviewees, streetism involved an addictive street life. The behaviours that tallied with this streetism tendency included substance use, violence and anti-social behaviours. It emerged from the data that male street children abused their female counterparts sexually. Some of these female street children decried that they were like poto dzemarasta (Rastafarian pots) which are shared frequently and generously. That meant that there were frequently abused by different male street counterparts and that they seemed to lack control over their sexuality.

The street children owned bases where they slept at night. The bases were on the periphery of the CBD, at shopping centres, in dilapidated houses and along the Mukuvisi River. Entry into the bases by strangers was restricted. During very cold or rainy nights some street children slept at Mai Musodzi Hall in Mbare where they watched films the whole night. The street children also owned working zones in the city. The work they engaged in included parking cars, begging, commercial sex, stealing and sometimes vending. These adolescent street children sometimes worked close to their bases. Other street children were not allowed to ‘trespass’ into the working zones of others. Key informants reported that even the police were at one time refused entry. They were repelled by the adolescent street children, who threw stones at them. Some of the bases were circumvented by human stools apparently to repel intruders. Some of the adolescent street children planted maize crops next to their bases while many stole the ripe maize from nearby fields.

It also emerged from the data that street children develop surrogate families on the streets which are groups of peers who stay and work together. These street families help each other in terms of need. It was found that the street children families help their members when ill, arrested and even in cases of death. There were cases of street children contributing resources to buy medication for ill street children and even burying dead peers in Epworth. The street children also formed marriages as they sometimes married and lived together in Mukuvisi bases or moved out of the streets to reside in Epworth. In some cases, the ‘wives’ were made to live in Epworth while the husbands stayed on the streets and occasionally visited the wife and children in Epworth.

It also emerged from the data that some street children engaged in non-hygienic behaviours. Such behaviours included hiding food in a toilet or avoiding bathing. Failing to bathe, however, made them appear as genuine street children to members of the public as a way to elicit sympathy and donations. It was also established that female street children lacked proper sanitary advice and accessories. The street children also warmed their bodies with fire from plastics and tyres which produced soot that darkened their appearance and made them very dirty. Mukuvisi River where some street children bathed was unhygienic and many contracted bilharzias. The researchers observed that street children sometimes used dirty papers or the bare ground as plates from which they ate their sadza (thick maize porridge). Sometimes the street children slept in mosquito-infested and stinking rubbish bins the whole night. This gave these street children a dirty and ragged appearance they referred to as ‘sutu yebasa’ (work suit). A dirty and ragged appearance elicited sympathy from their mhene (donors) because it revealed that they were really needy and genuine street children.

Closely related to identification with the street environment, many adolescent street-living children appeared to detest rural settings. Many of these adolescent street children seemed to prefer lives in the city than in the rural areas. The rural areas were detestable for the tedious and laborious chores such as livestock herding and tilling land. For instance, one 16-year-old male street child was reunited with his maternal grandmother in the rural areas, but fled because he claimed that he did not want to be forced to herd cattle. He flatly remarked: ‘ndakadzoka mutown netsoka ndati handingafudziswi mombe’ (I returned to the city on foot after refusing to be forced to herd cattle). Furthermore, a 15-year-old male street child unmistakably claimed: ‘Handiende kumusha baba vangu vava nemumwe mukadzi handidi kufudza mombe kumusha ini ndinogara mutown neshamwari dzangu’ (I will not go to my rural areas my father is already married to another woman, and I don't want to herd cattle there, but I would rather live in the streets with my peers).

5. Discussion

5.1 Nature of ecological self-image

The first objective in the current study sought to determine the nature of self-image for street-living children. The study results revealed that the self-image of adolescent street children is mixed, with the base leaders and those owning working places in the CBD having positive ecological self-image while the weaker street children have negative ecological self-image. These results seemed to dovetail with the findings from Narayan et al. (1999) that street children have negative self-image. The street children who owned bases in more lucrative or esteemed places such as the CBD had more positive self-image. Those street children who lived in cheaper places had less positive self-image. The results showed that the street children's self-image appeared to be largely metropolitan. The street children identified with the urban setting they lived in. As was predicted using the theory by Tajfel (1981, 1982), street childhood influences street children's self-image, especially their ecological self-image.

5.2 Ecological behaviours

In this section, the authors analyse the findings relative to literature and the objectives. These children saw themselves as vana vemutown who owned the metropolitan bases and workplaces. The last thing such children would ever want is to go back home, especially when that home is in the rural areas. This finding seemed to tally with the finding by Beazley (2003) that these street children cope with street challenges by appropriating urban niches within the city, in which they are able to earn money, feel safe and find enjoyment. Beazley suggests that these street children use such spaces, which have become territories in which identities are constructed, where alternative communities are formed and where the street children create collective solutions for the dilemmas they confront in their everyday lives.

It emerged from the current study that street children developed streetism tendencies which included violence, abuse of psychoactive substances, dirt deportment, antisocial tendencies and permissive sexual behaviours. Arthur (2012) has already mentioned that street children develop streetism tendencies on the streets. Muchini (1994, 2001), Muchini & Nyandiya-Bundy (1991) and UNICEF (2003) have also found that street children abuse psychoactive substances, engage in violence and engage in permissive sexual behaviours.

The conclusion that street children engaged in risky sexual behaviour appeared to dovetail with Flynn's (2008) findings that female street children's dependency on sexual exchanges to acquire food also leave them vulnerable to the physical and emotional difficulties of unplanned pregnancies, botched abortions, miscarriages, premature deliveries and poorly spaced births. Street children also engaged in various sexual acts like male–female, homosexual, autosexual and bisexual behaviour. The female street child appeared to be vulnerable to serious gender-based violence with no programmatic options for rehabilitation or traditional safety nets. Female participants in this study described themselves as poto dzemarasta, meaning Rastafarian pots that are shared frequently among acquaintances. These findings dovetailed with Ruparanganda's (2008) thesis that the female street children are an otherised category who are abused by their male counterparts. Indeed, Ruparanganda concluded that the street children saw themselves as zhing zhongs or counterfeits. Generally, as was predicted by Tajfel (1981, 1982), physical environments influence human behaviours in this study of street children's ecological behaviours.

5.3 Recommendations

The children living and working on the streets should be helped to reintegrate back into their communities because the streets have been found to be a dangerous environment for child development. Service providers and responsible government departments should reach out to street children and provide them with opportunities for family reunification and community reintegration. Families of origin of street children should be given financial and material resources as well as psychosocial support to help them accept and rehabilitate street children who need family reunification. Strengthening of the family helps parents or guardians realise their roles of protecting their children's rights, especially in cases where their children work or live on the streets. Street-living children needing family reunification should be integrated back into their families but it should be in their best interests. Once reunified with their families, such children should be provided with medical, educational, material and financial resources together with psychosocial counselling.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.