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The Psychology of Colombian Street Children

This article calls into question the diverse perceptions of the street children in Colombia. Through the use of participant observations and the administration of the Bender-Gestalt, Kohs Block Designs, and Human Figure Drawing tests, the author explains the psychology of the street children. Their behavior on the streets is explained as being rational and appropriate to their circumstances. Since most of the children are not actively rejected by their families, and because they receive support among their peers and from private benefactors in the society, their mental health is not as bad as popularly believed. The misperceptions of them and of the way they are treated by the society are explained in the context of the family and class structure in Colombia. The dominant society consists of patrifocal families that raise children to be submissive to their fathers, whereas the lower social classes raise their children in matrifocal families, which do not have men in them, and which encourage their children to be independent at an early age. The children in their early public display of liberty symbolically threaten the man's dominance in the patrifocal family system. As a result the children's skills are devalued.