The authors’ objectives for this review were to summarize the effectiveness of interventions for street-connected children and young people that promote inclusion and reintegration and reduce harms, to explore the processes of successful intervention and models of change in this area, and to understand how intervention effectiveness may vary in different contexts; the authors present their search strategy, selection criteria, data collection and analysis, and results and conclusions.
This review assessed the effectiveness of interventions for improving outcomes among street-connected children and young people, and for reducing some important health-related risks; and to improve access to and integration into society, education, and employment opportunities. The outcome for integration was not measured in included studies. The same was the case for education-related and employment-related outcomes, though none of the included studies measured literacy, numeracy, or participation in education or skills-based employment. Several studies measured health-related outcomes. Five studies investigate the effect of interventions to encourage safe or reduced sexual activity (e.g. numbers of partners, frequency of sex, HIV knowledge, unprotected sex, condom use and rates of abstinence). The results are mixed, lacking enough evidence to support any of the interventions. Eight studies report outcomes of interventions promoting safe or reduced substance use. The outcomes used a variety of measures in different studies at various times making it difficult to get a clear overview. The overall effect was mixed; some studies report positive effect and the others reported negative or no effect. Three studies investigate the effect of family therapy on substance abuse and report improvements in some of the measures. Eight studies investigate the effect of therapeutic interventions to improve mental health (including self-esteem and depression) in street-connected kids. In general, there is no significant improvement in the intervention group compared to the control group. In some instances, both groups improved from the baseline. Finally, two studies investigate the effect of family-based approaches on family functioning. No differences were found between intervention and control conditions on most of the outcome measures used. Publisher Abstract Provided
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