Street Youth: Coping and Interventions

A literature review of research into interventions among street youth is presented along with the results of a qualitative analysis of interviews with 80 street youth on the topic of coping. Themes arising from the qualitative analysis include street youths' negative and positive experiences with social support; and attitudes and beliefs such as self-worth, decreased reactivity to other's opinions, hope for the future, pride in self-reliance, anger/non-conformity, and spirituality. Recommendations of this study include the need for outcome research and programme evaluation, inclusion of sociocultural factors as variables, and accessing the experiences of street youth.