Children and Teenagers' Polls w i t h i n the Framework

Of the Moscow Railway Children Program

By: Anna Solouieva

The purpose ol the exercise was to identify correlations between

the children's social and physiological characteristics and define criteria

tn assess the probability of re-socialization for h o m e l e s s and neglected

children.

The analysis has used polling data received from 159 children (71

of these being homeless and the remaining88 — neglected children).

The respondents were broken into three groups depending on their

dependency on psychoactive substances.

The group with a strong chemical dependency is comprised of children

indulging in continuous pathological use of psychoactive substances.

Overall duration of their normal state of mind is less than that

in the altered state.

The group with a moderate chemical dependency is comprised of

children who use the psychoactive substances 1 -2 times a week.

The children with a prevailing normal state of mind (who use psychoactive

substances 3 times a month or less) were put into the group

with a minor chemical dependency.

Each of the above groups was divided in two subgroups: some of

Ihe teenagers were willing to change something in their lives, other

were not. Overall, that made 6 groups of teenagers. Social characteristics

were assessed by 27 objective and subjective parameters derived

n«mi the responses in the questionnaire (Table 1).

Single-value parameters were expressed as a percentage. Tor

example, the teenager's gender is a single-value parameter because a

given teenager can either be a boy or a girl. To calculate the percentage

ol girls in the sample, their number was divided on the total sample

quantity (i.e. 159 teenagers). Multiple parameters were described

as ratings. For example, one teenager uses only alcohol, another uses
alcohol and chemical substances, while yet another -- a variety ol psychoactive

substances. The use of psychoactive substances is a multiple

parameter. To calculate popularity of, say, alcohol, the number of

teenagers using alcohol was divided on the number of all psychoactive

substances being used (which has got to be much more than 159

because some teenagers use two or more substances) and multiply

these by 100.

Table I. Social Characteristics of Street Children
Using the correlation analysis method, we have identified nine

most significant parameters. The significance of a given parameter

was assessed by the number of reliable (p<0.05) correlations with

i '1 her parameters (Table 2).
The above nine factors are in fact criteria of the child's social

adaptability. Diagram in Fig. 1 shows the correlation between these

criteria. We identified six closely inter-related factors contributing to

children's de-socialization. These form a vicious circle difficult to

break through. The longer children stay on the street, the more

chances of their having trouble with the law, the greater I heir activity

to try finding some "solace" and "resolve" all problems with psychoactive

substances, the more estrangement from the parents, the

more frequently they are subjected to forced "help" from state-run

medical institutions, from where they flee, unable to bear the humiliation,

and become outlaws again. The cycle is complete. Strange as it

may seem, part of this vicious circle is formed by some charity institutions

which, instead of encouraging children's re socialization

through various rehabilitation programs and breaking the vicious circle,

limit their activity to provision of free f o o d, clothing and medical

50 Mi)S(o\V S HAIIWU M VI ION CHILDREN

"WORKING WITH VOI'III AT RISK" series. Issue in

Pig I. Inter-relation of Children 's Social Adaptability Criteria

% of children

Having legal

Income sources

treatment, "helping" the children to survive and better familiarize

themselves with the asocial role of a homeless child and drug addict.

It can be seen from the Diagram that the six factors dragging the

child down the social ladder are countered by three factors of the opposite

direction. The first one is age. The younger the child, the less time

spent on the street, the less chance of indulgence in psychoactive sublances.

The second indication ol the child's normal social adaptability

is preference ol alcohol to other psychoactive substances. Occasional

drinking is tolerated by the law and society. Accordingly, drinking doesn't

stigmatize the children; it doesn't break their family relationships

nor makes them homeless. The third and the strongest factor encouraging

the child's socialization is the desire to obtain legal income i.e.

work or ask (as opposed to stealing) for money from their parents.

Mi ISCOWS RAILWAY STATION CHILDREN 5]
vicious circle of de-socialization are closely interrelated with three

of them (namely, the law. state "help" and charity organizations)

being organized systems, the three above-mentioned factors are not

inter-related at all. being purely the matter of a personal character.

What we see is a face-off between the de-socialization system and a

lone personality with the forces being unequal. The conclusion: we

have to establish a system oriented to children's re-socialization, not

only their physical survival.

Straight arrows indicate positive correlations (where an increase in

one parameter brings about a similar increase in another).

Broken arrows indicate negative positive correlations (where an

increase in one parameter brings about a decrease in another

parameter).

The so-called vicious circle of de-socialization is marked grey.

Based on the derived criteria, we have assessed social adaptability

for each of the six groups of teenagers. The comparison was made

against the average value for the entire sample. Where the group indicator

differed from the average value by less than l()()o. it was marked

as zero, if it characterized the group towards social adaptability — as

+ I, otherwise — as - 1. The findings are shown in Table 3.

Two groups with a strong chemical dependency are pretty similar.

Both are totally asocial and three quarters of their members are homeless

teenagers with a prevailing age of 17-18 years. Re-socialization of

these teenagers is very difficult. Representatives of group I are unwilling

to change anything, they are tough and secretive. Their only problem

on the street is the police, while the most frequently named reason

lor being runaways is their desire to be free. Representatives of

group 4 declare their willingness to change something in their lives.

However, the highest degree of chemical dependence in this group

gives rise to doubts whether they would be capable of realizing these

desires and whether they were sincere in their representations.

Teenagers from groups 2 and 3 are socially adaptive. These groups

have the smallest percentage of orphans and homeless. Asocial elements

of their behavior mainly stem from their protest against their

parents. Behavior of group 2 teenagers is пине asocial: they suffer

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