The family dynamics of children on the streets of Ibadan, Southwest Nigeria

Abstract

Background: Children roaming the streets estimated at 1 in 10 by a 2021 United Nation Children’s Funds (UNICEF) report is a growing  problem, in cities of lower- and middleincome African countries. Studies of street children with no family ties abound, but there is a paucity of studies on children on the street who exist within families and return home daily. We explored the family dynamics of children  on the streets of Ibadan, emphasising family structure, resources and relationships.

Methods: Using an exploratory design based on a qualitative approach 53 participants were interviewed, including children on the  streets, parental figures, child-welfare officers and street shop owners. Participants were selected from streets in the five urban local  government areas of Ibadan, Nigeria. Recorded data were transcribed, and framework analysis was performed.

Results: The family  dynamics included family structural problems, poor family resources and poor parent-child relationships. The family structural problems  included: broken homes, large families and ambivalence around polygamy as subthemes. Family resources comprised: poor economic  resources, poor social resources, educational challenges, cultural ambivalence and spiritual backdrops. The family relationships patterns  included: poor adaptability, economicoriented partnership, poor growth support, poor emotional connection and poor family bonding.  

Conclusion: The dynamics driving a family’s choice for child streetism in Ibadan, mostly to hawk, are devaluation of family life, parenting  irresponsibility, and poor filial relationship, underscored by economic constraints and socio-cultural decadence. The results of this  research buttress the need for family-level interventions to forestall the escalating phenomenon of child streetism in Ibadan, Nigeria.  

Contribution: This research highlights the family dynamics of children on the streets, and buttresses family-level interventions are  necessary to forestall escalating child-streetism in Ibadan, Nigeria.