Mães avaliam comportamentos socialmente desejados e indesejados de pré-escolares

Comportamentos socialmente habilidosos promovem o desenvolvimento, ao passo que problemas de comportamento dificultam o acesso a novas contingências de reforçamento, facilitadoras da aquisição de repertórios de aprendizagem. Esta pesquisa investiga avaliações maternas de repertórios socialmente desejados e indesejados de crianças que, segundo o professor, apresentam problemas de comportamento. Participaram mães de 24 crianças indicadas pelo professor como tendo problemas de comportamento e mães de 24 crianças indicadas como tendo comportamentos socialmente desejados. O Questionário de Comportamentos Socialmente Desejados e a Escala Comportamental Infantil de Rutter foram aplicados nas residências das participantes. Os resultados indicaram mais problemas de comportamento externalizante no grupo previamente indicado como tendo problemas; os grupos não diferiram quanto a comportamentos desejados. em ambos os grupos, as crianças obtiveram altos escores de comportamentos socialmente desejados, apontando reservas comportamentais. Também em ambos foram identificadas crianças que poderiam ser beneficiadas com programas para a promoção de interações sociais mais equilibradas, prevenindo problemas de comportamento.

A Qualidade da Interação Positiva e da Consistência Parental na sua Relação com Problemas de Comportamentos de Pré-Escolares

Studies have shown a relationship to exist between behavior problems in children and quality of parental practices such as communication, expressivity, consistency, and monitoring. This study aimed at describing relationships that parents have with their preschool children, and also at relating parenting skills to child behavior. We compared fathers' and mothers' social educational skills in two groups of children, with or without behavior problems at school. Research was conducted in a town in the State of Sao Paulo, BR. Participants were biological mothers and fathers of 48 preschoolers; twenty-five children presented behavior problems at school, and 24 had high social skills. Parents were individually interviewed at home. Results showed that fathers and mothers of socially skilled children were more consistent in their practices. They were more able to identify and describe their children's socially skilled behaviors. They also reported they gave more positive feedbak for their children's good behavior.

The role of social skills in social anxiety of university students

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Assessment of agroeconomic indices in polycultures of lettuce, rocket and carrot through uni- and multivariate approaches in semi-arid Brazil

The polyculture among vegetables is an activity that to have good results, needs a proper planning. Although it often requires more labor, has several advantages over monoculture, among them is that polycultures are generally are more productive, provide with productivity of various plant constituents and a more balanced human diet, contribute to economic return, economic and yield stability, social benefits and farmer's direct participation in decision-making. The objective of this study was to evaluate agroeconomic indices of polycultures derived from the combination of two cultivars of lettuce with two cultivars of rocket in two cultures strip-intercropped with carrot cultivar 'Brasilia' through uni-multivariate approaches in semi-arid Brazil. The experimental design used was of randomized complete blocks with five replications and the treatments arranged in a factorial scheme of 2 x 2. The treatments consisted of the combination of two lettuce cultivars (Baba de Verao and Taina) with two rocket cultivars (Cultivada and Folha Larga) in two cultures associated with carrot cv. Brasilia. hi each block were grown plots with two lettuce cultivars and two rocket cultivars, and carrot in sole crop. In each system was determined the lettuce leaf yield, rocket green mass yield and carrot commercial yield. Agrieconomic indices such as operational cost, gross and net income, monetary advantage, rate of return, profit margin, land equivalent ratio and yield efficiency for DEA were used to measure the efficiency of intercropping systems. In the bicropping of lettuce and rocket associated with carrot cv. 'Brasilia', suggests the use of lettuce cultivar 'Taina' combined with rocket cultivars 'Cultivada' or 'Folha Larga'. It was observed significant effect of lettuce cultivars in the evaluation of polycultures of lettuce, carrot and rocket, with strong expression for the lettuce cultivar 'Taina'. Both uni- and multivariate approaches were effective in the discrimination of the best polycultures. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Assessment of cytokine values in serum by RT-PCR in HIV-1 infected individuals with and without highly active anti-retroviral therapy (HAART)

Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP)

Assessment of Quality of Life and Psychologic Aspects in Patients with Gestational Trophoblastic Disease

OBJECTIVE: To assess quality of life (QoL) and psychological aspects in patients with gestational trophoblastic disease (GTD).METHODS: This cross-sectional self-report study was conducted among 54 women. Validated questionnaires assessed QoL (WHO-QOL-bref), symptoms of depression (Beck Depression Inventory [BDI]) and anxiety (State-Trait Anxiety Inventory [STAI]).RESULTS: Most patients rated overall QoL as good (44.44%) anti were satisfied with their health status (42.59%). Mean QoL domain score was lowest for psychologic health (53.86 +/- 21.46) and highest for social relationships (65.74 +/- 22.41). BDI mean was 15.81 +/- 11.15, indicating dysphoria. STAI means were 46 +/- 6.46 for trait-anxiety and 43.72 +/- 4.23 for state-anxiety, both evidencing medium-high anxiety. Among employed patients, environment domain mean was the highest (p = 0.024). Presence of children resulted in lowest means for physical health (p = 0.041) and environment (p = 0.045). Patients desiring children showed significantly higher means for physical health (p = 0.004), psychological health (p = 0.021) and environment (p = 0.003). Chemotherapy had no significant influence on QoL (p > 0.05).CONCLUSION: This study evidenced psychological impact on GTD patients, suggesting specialized care centers should provide psychological interventions during treatment and follow-up of GTD patients, highlighting the importance of a multidisciplinary approach. (J Reprod Med 2009;54:239-244)

Assessment of health-related quality of life in children with functional defecation disorders

Objective: To evaluate the health-related quality of life in children with functional defecation disorders. Methods: One hundred children seen consecutively were enrolled and subdivided into three subsets according to the Roma II classification criteria: functional constipation (n = 57), functional fecal retention (n = 29) and nonretentive functional soiling (n = 14). The generic instrument Child Health Questionnaire - Parent Form 50 (CHQ-PF50®), was used to measure quality of life and to assess the impact of these disorders from the point of view of parents. The instrument measures physical and psychosocial wellbeing in 15 health domains, each of which is graded on a scale from 0 to 100, with higher values indicating better health and greater wellbeing. Ten of these are then used to obtain two aggregated and summary scores: the physical and psychosocial scores. Results: No statistically significant differences were detected between subsets in terms of demographic or anthropometric characteristics. In 14 domains, children with defecation disorders scored lower than healthy children. When subsets were compared, statistically significant differences were detected between children with nonretentive functional soiling (lower scores) and those with functional constipation. Physical and psychosocial scores for the entire sample were lower than those for the group of healthy children used as controls. Conclusions: The CHQ-PF50® was considered adequate for demonstrating compromised quality of life in children with functional defecation disorders, as has been reported for other diseases, being a useful tool for making treatment decisions and for patient follow-up. Copyright © 2006 by Sociedade Brasileira de Pediatria.

Emotional assessment of patients with oral lichen planus

Background Oral lichen planus is a chronic immune-mediated disease with an estimated prevalence of 0.5-2.5% in the general population. Patients with oral lichen planus are often emotionally unstable and anxious and may develop concomitant systemic disorders. The objective of this study was to evaluate emotional characteristics of patients with oral lichen planus.Methods Two groups were studied: the first group consisted of 48 patients with a diagnosis of oral lichen planus, and the second group consisted of controls without the disease matched for age and gender at a proportion of 1 : 1. The emotional state of the patients was evaluated using the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, SF-36 generic quality of life questionnaire, and the Self Reporting Questionnaire-20.Results and conclusions The present investigation demonstrated the presence of anxiety and depression in patients with oral lichen planus and a negative impact of the disorder on the patient's quality of life as indicated by impairment of the physical aspect, vitality, mental health, and social aspect domains. This could indicate that associated psychological treatment may be important in the follow-up of these patients.

Assessment of the effects of a parental intervention with mothers of children with internalizing problems

The present study assesses the effects of a semi-structured intervention held exclusively with mothers and its effects on internalizing problems, social skills of children, and positive and negative parenting practices. The single subject experimental design with three participants was adopted. The three mothers had, in baseline, children diagnosed with internalizing and externalizing problems. The instruments used were CBCL, RE-HSE-P, QRSH-Pais and PHQ-9, they were performed in baseline, pre-test, post-test, and follow-up assessments. The intervention held is characterized as semi-structured for it promotes the development of parental practices that are considered positive by the literature on behavior problems, however, contingently to the difficulties and demands of each case. The number of sessions performed for each case was 14, 15 and 17, which lasted about two hours each. The data were analyzed according to the instruments' norms and under the perspective of each singular case. The results found include remission of internalizing problems, increase in frequency of the children's social skills, increase in frequency of positive parental practices, and decrease in variability of negative parental practices. All the improvements were maintained on the six months follow-up, with the exception of variability on the negative parental practices of one client. Results are discussed in a context of mental health promotion and indicate the need for strategies to prevent internalizing problems in children.