title: Future expectations of Brasilian street youth.
abstract: Future expectations of youth surviving on the streets of Porto Alegre, Brasil, were examined. The sample consisted of 35 boys and 34 girls aged 10-18 (M age 14.4) who participated in a sentence completion task and semi-structured interviews. Responses to two incomplete sentences regarding the future revealed a mismatch between hoped-for and expected events. When completing the sentence, "In the future, I hope..." the majority of youth gave optimistic (but generally non-specific) responses. In contrast, the sentence "For me, the future..." elicited more pessimistic responses. Few gender or age-related differences emerged. Findings are discussed in light of prior research with general populations of adolescents as well as studies of street youth. Taken as a whole, results suggest that life on the street shapes and constrains how youth see their futures. Implications of the findings for policy makers and practitioners are addressed.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology and Institute for Ethnic Studies, University of Nebraska, 238 Burnett Hall, Lincoln, NE 68588-0308, USA. mraffaelli1@unl.edu
authors.forename: Marcela
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Raffaelli
authors.forename: Silvia H
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Koller
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D001938:Brazil; D002648:Child; D005260:Female; D018453:Homeless Youth / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D007407:Interviews as Topic; D008297:Male; D013534:Survival / Q000523:psychology; D014505:Urban Population