sociology - the logic of social inquiry

The objective of this research study is to investigate and analyze the life of street children, which have become a significant issue of our society. To study the life of street children the researcher has chosen the research topic “Street Children, a Significant Issue of the Society, Street Children also has family”. To investee the research, the researcher has proposed the these research questions;

1. What is the significance of the issue of homeless children?

2. As every child has a family, street child also have, how much it is true in our society?

Studies on family personal and social risk have attracted the attention of researchers in the field of humanities. To investigate the relationship that children and adolescents living on the streets have with their families, at first, it seems a challenge. Although in recent decades is remarkable change in the configuration and functioning of families, it is curious to note that remain taboos and myths when it comes to other family arrangements that are out of original and traditional model. Generally, the adjective “unstructured” appears justifying the lack of financial resources to maintain the basic needs and criticizing the structure and family setting particularly if this is Parent. But the family of meaning seems to transcend these precepts and prejudices. As the issue of homeless children is increasing in our society and a special care is needed in the issue that’s why researcher has chosen this issue to investigate the significant issues of street children.

The scientific literature offers several definitions of the term family. In 1982, Minuchin pointed out that the family is an open and constantly changing system due to exchange of information with the extra familial systems (Stephenson, 2001, 530-547). Historically, the configuration of families has been changing over time and requires constant adjustment. According to Carter and McGoldrick (1985/1995), such changes are due, largely socio-economic transformations, the review of the role and tasks performed by women and current plurality in family arrangements. These changes led to the existence of new arrangements and family configurations.

Recently, the family has been defined as a complex institution in order to address the diversity of relationships that coexist in society. The psychological definitions have extended the traditional concept of family referring to the family group as a set of relationships, whether they are consanguineous or not (Panter-Brick, 2002, 147-171).This proposal reaffirmed that there is no single homogeneous model of family structure, but different configurations that coexist in contemporary society and to be free of stereotypes. However, the socioeconomic status appears to influence the qualification of families, particularly in poor and miserable (Stephenson, 2001, 530-547).

The family can be a risk factor in the development and protection of its components. On the one hand, authors point out the positive interactions that families can use and build on the situations of stress and social vulnerability calling family resilience (Glauser, 2015, pp. 128). On the other, risk events can produce greater social vulnerability of families (Abdelgalil et al., 2004, 817-820). The precarious socio-economic status of families impose greater difficulties for survival and can aggravate or trigger episodes of risk, such as abandonment, neglect and violence (Abdelgalil et al., 2004, 817-820). Such a shortage of material and emotional resources may have as a result the output to the child or adolescent Street context as negative and immediate of these conditions.

The relationship with the family has always been mentioned as one of the main factors to be considered in youth description in the streets. This, among other things, appears as a basic indicator to characterize the relationship that children and adolescents have with the street (Stephenson, 2001, 530-547). This discussion was nurtured by researchers in the late 90s of last century, in order to define the difference between“children on the street and “street children”. The first group (street), characterized by those who have more stable family bond is the children who dropped out or were abandoned by the family, and spend most of their time on the streets. Thus, the “living on the street” is its development, socialization, interaction, work, education and leisure. This definition indicates that the socialization of these children is the dynamic of the street, which has its own laws (Lalor, 1999, 759-770).

Young people using the street context as housing and socialization space have families, although the beliefs that permeate society seem to indicate otherwise. If children live on the street is because they have no family, as if they had “naturally” would be at home. Popular theories like these translate names for this population as “children of no one” what, somehow, justify the presence of those on the street (Panter-Brick, 2002, 147-171). Thus, the lack of stable bonds, blood or otherwise, would become subject to migrate to the street context. The lacks of responsibility of an adult who occupies the position of father / mother, and who doubts have this commitment somehow exempt anyone else to take care of the child. The literature reiterates and confirms the existence of family ties of adolescents and children living in the streets (Dybicz, 2005, 763-771). A major study on the profile of children “on the streets” in Porto Alegre interviewed 825 young people, 79% male and 21% female, and revealed data on family relationships established in this population (de Carvalho et al., 2006, 57-66). An interesting result of family ties indicated that 94.4% of participants reported having mom and 81.5% cited as part of the family. Regarding the father figure, 77.4% said they had parent, but only 48.8% consider it as part of your family. Another figure cited by 42.9% was the stepfather, since 24.2% live with this and 10.9% consider him as a member of his family.

Panter-Brick (2002, 147-171) investigated the characteristics of families living in the city streets in the Northeast of Aracaju. The authors highlighted the extensive number of components in the family, the leadership of these by women, a history of violence, drug use and unemployment (Panter-Brick, 2002, 147-171). Also identified that low educational level and high unemployment rate appears strongly linked with the work of the kids and the output of these to the street. Finally, note that even after the departure of their homes, young people “on the streets” maintain contact with their families (Panter-Brick, 2002, 147-171). This data reflects the situation faced by families living in situations of personal and social risk.

Therefore, it is possible to verify the existence of family ties in the history of adolescents and children “in the streets”. However, these links should be analyzed dynamically and continuously, due to frequent fluctuations in the degree and configuration. In addressing the reality experienced by this population and their families is necessary to reflect the contextual family (Volpi, 2003, 13-37). This issue should be understood in its entirety, not restricted to family contact of existence, or even if there really is any family.

Different research methods of information collection are accessible which can be utilised in research study. This is actually for the investigator to choose those that best meet the needs of research study. For data collection, the researcher has chosen a secondary research approach as this will fulfill the needs of analysis of existing cases associated with the development of rice blast modeling and forecasting system (Volpi, 2003, 13-37).

Secondary research method will be used in this research study, the reason behind choosing this method is simple as this is the most common method of collecting data in a research study. Apart from the secondary sources of research, primarily research methods will also be used as per need of the research. In order to formulate research aims and objectives as well as research questions of the study, it is significant to gather secondary data in order to develop a deeper understanding and concept of the research subject under study Panter-Brick (2002, 147-171),. In this research study, the investigator will gather the majority of the data from the secondary sources of research. A qualitative research method will be used, semi structured interview will also be conducted to analyze the research data.

For this research, the researcher will be using qualitative research method. Although, most of the data will be collected through secondary sources of research, however, interviews will be conducted to analyze the research questions of the study. This study will be conducted among 17 adolescents and children “living in the streets”, aged between 11 and 16 years (M = 14.05, SD = 1.24), of both sexes (29% of girls and 71% of boys).

For the analysis, the researcher will use secondary data available on online sources, a number of of these databases visited like Questia, Phoenix, EBSCO and Emerald, etc. with way in to such databases. The entire information used in these online sources are used in the research introduction section, literature review as well as discussion/study and conclusions. However, the analysis section of the study will be based on the date collection from the survey as well as interpretation of the data.

Considering the ethics of research that the researcher is aware of all legal issues related to data collection. Ethical concerns have been taken in this research to examine the great intellectual issues which are very important in recent years. For the study of ethics, the researcher took the permission from selected participants and ensures that their data and private information will not be disclosed to anyone (Neuman, 2005, 10-36). The researcher has also told that at any time throughout the survey/research, if participants will feel uncomfortable can take out from the research study as well as the information that they provide will not be included in research study. Participants will sign initially the consent form that their information are included on the willingly basis.

Time, dishonesty of participants, and misunderstanding of questions etc could be the limitations of the study. However, the conclusion will be based on the research findings and analysis of the primary and secondary data gathered for this research.

The proposal doesn’t address many of the key requirements of the assignment.