Marital conflicts and street children: A case study of Nyarugenge District

Abstract

The main purpose of this study is to understand the extent to which marital conflict factors contribute to the street children in Nyarugenge District, specifically in Kimisagara Sector. For this reason, collected empirical data were based on research questions, while a theoretical framework combined with other perspectives on marital conflict theory were used to conduct this research. The theoretical framework showed how marital conflict can be both constructive and destructive. With constructive conflict theory, when parents handle conflicts in positive ways by displaying behaviors, such as verbal and physical affection, problem-solving and support, this can help preserve children's security by increasing their confidence that any difficulties between their parents will be managed in a way that maintains family harmony. Whereas, with destructive conflict, when parents manage conflict in a hostile way, such as physical aggression, verbal aggression, threat, and personal insult, this leads to lower parenting supervision, then children lack guidance and authoritative parenting, which may push children to go to the street. The government was seen throughout the findings doing a great deal of work in ensuring that children are rescued from the streets and taken to rehabilitation centers to ensure that they are reintegrated in their families or relatives, or sent to rehabilitations centers for re-education to gain life skills. Also, there are the community based initiatives of ‘Umugoroba w’Imiryango’ and ‘Incuti z’Umuryango’, which are home grown solutions that contribute to managing marital conflicts and prevent street children.Therefore, several stakeholders need to be put on board to ensure that the underlying root causes of street children are mitigated. There is a need to engage them, from the governmental and non-governmental interventions, local authorities, Civil society and the community or parents to collaborate and cooperate to curb this phenomenon of street children by addressing the issue of marital conflict.