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LAS INVESTIGACIONES PSICOSOCIALES SOBRE LA SUBSISTENCIA INFANTIL EN LAS CALLES DESARROLLADAS EN EL INP DURANTE LOS ÚLTIMOS 25 AÑOS
Rafael Gutiérrez*, Leticia Vega*

SUMMARY
In the mid 1970’s, a series of psychosocial studies about children and adolescents living on the street was started at the Mexican Center of Addictions (Centro Mexicano de Estudios en Farmacodependencia). These studieshave been followed by different research teams for the past 25 years at the National Institute of Psychiatry Ramón de la Fuente. Ever since its beginnings, this research has rendered relevant knowledge about the diversity of situations that endanger the children’s mental health on the streets, as well as of their strategies to face adversities. The information obtained has been very useful to developintervention programs and to consult, train, and express recommendations to both governmental and non-governmental organizations in charge of caring for childhood ‘on street situation’. The development of this series of studies can be divided into two broad periods. In the first stage, both qualitative and quantitative research were focused on understanding the problems of child sustenance on thestreets. The qualitative studies intended to describe the use of inhalants among children living on the streets. Also, the study observed the children’s social organization, values, and the personal characteristics needed to prevail. To that effect, a group of 23 boys and one girl that slept on the streets was observed. The group was in average 9 years old. It was found that the whole groupssniffed toluene at least 4 days a week. Almost always, their first worry as they woke up was to buy a toluene sample. The subjects in the study also noticed in themselves a higher degree of intoxication when they had to handle sad situations. Finally, it was reported that children organized among themselves to face street difficulties. Furthermore, some children became leaders with the ability toorganize the actions needed for the solutions to personal and collective problems. On the other hand, the qualitative research evaluated the use of inhalants within small samples of street children as well as the factors that encourage it. The study tried to determine the neurological and psychological consequences of inhaling solvents deliberately. In one of these studies, it was found that of 329subjects (94% male), with an average age of 13.7 years, 27% admitted to sniff daily. The average period of inhalant use was found to be 4.5 years. The general traits associated with the use of inhalants were: male sex, low schooling and school desertion,

early start of work, alcohol and/or drug consumption of mother, siblings, and friends, low or null contact with family, and migration from ruralareas. In the second research stage, the development of studies on inhalant abuse of ‘street children’ was continued. The quantitative studies examined larger samples of street children in 100 cities across the country and in the Federal District. In this respect, in the Federal District report it is noted that alcohol and tobacco are the most commonly abused substances by working minors: 26 % ofmen and 14% of women reported smoking. The most frequently used illegal drugs were inhalants, followed by marijuana and cocaine and to a lesser extent psychotropic pills. The most important factor linked to drug use was the minor’s occupation. It was observed that minors working as packers had low indexes of consumption of illegal drugs (2.4% of those aged between 12 and 17 years has used drugs).Those minors working in public areas had higher consumption rates (8.1%), and a considerably higher rate was found among minors living on the streets (76%). In this period, the qualitative studies were dramatically increased. These studies started to pay much more attention to the street children’s views and opinions. This research also tried to focus on other problems of life in the streets...