Street children in Colombo: What brings them to and sustains them on the streets.

Introduction: Street children are a vulnerable group and a social problem. Weaning them off the streets requires an understanding of push/pull factors related to street life. Objectives: To describe factors associated with initiation and continuation of street life among street children in Colombo city. Methods: A descriptive cross sectional study of mixed methods was conducted in Colombo Fort, Pettah, Slave Island and Maradana areas. Semi-structured interviews (SSIs) were conducted with key informants using a semi-structured questionnaire (SSQ). Focus group discussions were conducted using a moderator’s question guide with street children recruited through referral sampling. SSIs were also conducted with 25 street children, using a SSQ. All children identified through referral sampling were subsequently profiled. Data triangulation was used to validate data. Results: Two hundred and eighty three children, aged 8-18 years, were recruited, 210 (74%) being boys. Representation of minority ethnic groups was comparatively higher. Over 40% of children had been introduced to street life by their own family. Other common mediators included close family relatives, non-relative known contacts and peers. Common reported reasons for initiation of street life were: death / illness / imprisonment of one or both parent/s, extreme poverty, alcohol/substance abuse by fathers and being born in streets. One third of children lived in single-parent families and 42% with non-parent adults but 18% lacked an adult guardian. They had poor educational achievements and no occupational skills. Conclusions: Disadvantaged socio-economic conditions, poor family functioning and family influence have brought children to the streets.

Left-behind children of migrant women: Difficulties encountered and strengths demonstrated.

Introduction: Labour export is the main source of foreign exchange earning for Sri Lanka. Women form 52% of this and when they migrate, many of them leave behind their children who face abuse and neglect as a result. Objectives: To describe the difficulties encountered by these children and strengths demonstrated by them and to describe factors associated with the difficulties they encounter. Method: A qualitative, descriptive cross-sectional study was carried out in administrative districts of Colombo, Gampaha and Kurunegala. Data was collected through focus group discussions with school teachers and semi-structured interviews with primary carers of migrants’ children and religious leaders. Results: Qualitative content analysis of data showed emergence of several themes. These children performed poorly in academic activities, lacked concentrating abilities and failed to improve despite additional help. They did not participate in extra-curricular activities due to poor moral support and had a wide range of behavioural problems such as aggression, cruelty, stealing, hyperactivity, disruptive behaviour etc. They found it difficult to establish new relationships and sustain existing ones, including relationships with parents. Many children were physically, psychologically, emotionally and sexually abused and most were neglected by their carers. They also lacked acceptable role models. However, some children had strengths to cope with stressors resulting from mothers’ absence, were mature in thinking and behaviour, survived in many situations without help and found access to adequate human and physical resources. Mothers’ migration, poor emotional bonding with substitute carers, inadequacy in physical, financial, and human resources, disadvantaged social conditions and behaviours of adults in families increased their difficulties. Conclusions: Migrant women’s children have many difficulties resulting from mothers’ absence. Their strengths to face life’s challenges, comparatively, seem minimal.

Sinhala translation of child behaviour checklist: validity and reliability.

OBJECTIVE: To translate the child behaviour checklist (CBCL) into Sinhala and validate it for assessment of mental health status of children aged 5-10 years. DESIGN AND SETTING: Translation/back-translation method was used to translate the English CBCL into Sinhala. Each item in the Sinhala CBCL (CBCL-S) was rated by mental health professionals to determine semantics, content, and conceptual validity types. To ascertain criterion validity, total scores obtained for CBCL-S by administering it to parents or parent surrogates of 49 girls and 80 boys aged 5-10 years attending the specialist psychiatry clinics and 69 boys and 69 girls in the same age group from the community were compared with clinical diagnoses by a child psychiatrist. Receiver operator characteristic curves were drawn to obtain the cut-off points in CBCL-S for boys and girls separately. RESULTS: Semantics, content, and conceptual and criterion validity of CBCL-S were satisfactory. At the cut-off level of 39, CBCL-S had a sensitivity of 90% and a specificity of 88% for boys and a sensitivity of 89% and a specificity of 92% for girls. Internal consistency, test-retest reliability, and inter-interviewer reliability of CBCL-S were satisfactory. INTERPRETATION: CBCL-S is a valid and reliable instrument to measure mental health status of Sinhalese children aged 5-10 years in Sri Lanka.