The poor but not the helpless: Resilience among the street children in Metro Manila

• Main Authors: Kho, Aimee Jane S., Lagamayo, Chlarise C., Quevedo, Elijah Marie B., Sy, Shenaider Bless B.
• Format: text
• Language: English
• Published: Animo Repository 2018
• Subjects: Resilience (Personality trait) in children > Philippines > Metro Manila; Street children > Philippines > Metro Manila
• Online Access: https://animorepository.dlsu.edu.ph/etd_bachelors/9940
• Institution: De La Salle University

The intent of this study is to determine how resilience occurs with the street children of Metro Manila. The study particularly looks into the specific contextual challenges, internal and external assets that foster resilience. The participants of the study consists of 18 street children aged 12 to 18 years old, identified as children at risk, of the street and on the streets. Purposive, convenience and snowball sampling were used to recruit participants who gave consent and voluntarily joined the study. Semi-strcutured interviews were either done individually or by group in order to gain rapport and capture their lived experiences. The data gathered were analyzed through thematic analysis by Braun and Clark. The results show the challenges that street children of Metro Manila experience such as abuse and exploitation, substance abuse exposure, and negative uncontrollable factors on where they reside. They resolve these through the use of internal assets such as having an initiative, realization that change for the better is possible, courage, altruistic behavior and aversion from trouble. They also use external assets such as their faith, social and emotional support from people around them, institutional support and through technology. These findings show specific contextual occurrence of resilience within the children of Metro Manila.