The lived experience of glue sniffing street children in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia: violence coping and resilience.
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Date
2020
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
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Publisher
Addis Abeba University
Abstract
Introduction
In the streets of Addis Ababa, street children number which has been increasing is
estimated to be at least 50,000 of which significant number of them use multiple
substance. There are limited studies on glue sniffing street children lived
experience.
Objective
To explore and describe the lived experience of glue sniffing children living in
streets of Addis Ababa.
Method
A qualitative research design was used. Participants were recruited using purposive
sampling from street children who were living under care of Retrak Ethiopia Addis
Ababa, Ethiopia. Also the participants were those who can speak Amharic
language fluently. Sampling was until theoretical saturation is reached, seven in
depth interviews were done. In-depth interviews were audio recorded, transcribed
in Amharic and translated into English. Thematic analysis was used to identify key
themes
Results
The major findings fromthis study are family abuse lead the children and
adolescents in this study to street life.Intheir daily life searching for food, asking
money for glue, sometimes stealing and robbing and sniffing glue are the major
activities of their daily life. Hunger, cold during the night and beating from older
peers and police make their life the more difficult. Most street children peer used
peer support, glue sniffing and unusual coping strategies to cope street life while
cognitive coping and emotion focused coping were used by some. Hope and
abstinencefrom substance is found a key in these street children perception of
resilience
Description
Keywords
Psychiatry,Glue sniffing ,street children