Conflict, Submission, and Support: Pathways to Network Formation Among Bangladeshi Street Children

Background and Introduction.

 Social relationships/network among groups emerge from both the concentration of personal attributes and the dynamics of interaction. How these factors contribute in relationship building is explained by the “principle of homophily”. The homophily principle asserts that people usually interact only with others who mirror their attributes and reinforce each other’s position. Research consistently shows that contact between similar people (i.e. race, gender, class) occurs at a higher rate than among dissimilar people. Even though homophily principle explains the general rule how relationships likely to form, the micro processes of relationships building may vary among different groups. There is little research to date that explains how street children develop relationships under extreme circumstances characterized by poverty, abuse, and social stigma. This might be because the issue has gained recent attention as well as the fact that street children are a hard-to-reach group. In order to understand the relationships building process among street children in Bangladesh, the paper asks the following questions: How do children form social relationships on the street and what types of relationships emerge on the street?              

 Methods.

The social relationships formation among street youth is relatively unstudied and likely complex; thus, a qualitative approach was pursued with approval of the Institutional Review Board. Purposive sampling from three locations in Dhaka, Bangladesh yielded a sample of 75 street children aged 10-17. For each participant, the researcher conducted a 60-90 minute in-depth qualitative interview for multiple times. Interviews were transcribed, coded and analyzed using Nvivo-9. A priori and emergent themes were identified through within and cross-interview analysis of key topical areas.

Findings.

The findings affirms the general notion of homophily principle that street children usually form relationships with other street children. Relationships among fellow street children are formed through three processes: conflict, submission, and support. Conflict-led relationships building occurs when conflict creates emotional conditions (i.e. anger, sympathy), facilitating bonding among groups of children. Submission-led relationship emerged from the interaction between experienced and newcomer children where newcomer reach out the experienced youth seeking help. As an outcome, a mentor-mentee relationship develops and the newcomer abide by the experienced youth’s decision. Supportive relationships emerged either through socialization or crisis-management. Children meet others through their everyday economic activities and play, and relationships are formed through playfulness and socialization. In some occasions, street children help an unknown child to overcome crises (i.e. abuse, accident). Relationships emerges from such help-giving behavior. Findings also show three types of relationships - Parichito (acquaintance), Bondhu (friend) and Janer Bondhu (close friend) - emerge from children’s interactions, each characterizing specific strength of tie.

Implications.

The findings shed light on street children’s relationship formation and have few likely implications. It will expand our theoretical understanding of relationship-formation among a group that hardly been discussed in network literature. As well, the findings demonstrate street children’s resilient behavior and help us to think about strength-based intervention (i.e. asset creation) for them.