De menor a criança, de criança a filho: discursos de adoção

A presente tese teve como objetivo primordial cartografar e analisar algumas instituições e mitos que potencializaram, no contexto do estado do Rio de Janeiro, a emergência e a legitimação da prática da adoção-pronta. Por adoção-pronta, entendemos as solicitações de adoções que aportam nos Juizados da Infância e da Juventude como fato consumado, isto é, a criança a ser adotada já se encontra, concretamente, com os requerentes que pretendem regularizar uma situação instituída. Essa medida, via de regra, sustenta-se num tripé: uma mãe que entrega, um casal que acolhe e discursos de especialistas, dentre eles, psicólogos e assistentes sociais, que ratificam tal relação. A amostragem da pesquisa foi composta por dez processos de adoção-pronta, sendo cinco na vigência do Código de Menores e cinco sob a ótica do Estatuto da Criança e do Adolescente. A genealogia histórica de Foucault, as ferramentas da Análise Institucional bem como a Análise e a Ordem do Discurso de Orlandi e Foucault foram, nesse percurso, os recortes metodológicos priorizados. As análises permitiram constatar que são pobres, jovens, solteiras e empregadas domésticas as mulheres-mães que entregam seus filhos em adoção. Os que acolhem, em sua maioria, são legalmente casados, economicamente ativos, possuem filhos e, não mantém com a mãe biológica, laços de parentalidade. Os laudos técnicos, via de regra, têm colocado, na mãe pobre, a responsabilidade e a autonomia pelo ato de entrega e, portanto, vêm funcionando como instrumentos de produção e sustentação de subjetividades, tais como a de mãe desnaturada. Em síntese, as análises nos possibilitaram concluir que os discursos dos especialistas longe de afirmarem a ineficácia das políticas públicas como co-autoras dos processos de destituição do poder familiar, vêm afirmando a adoção-pronta como prática de repercussão pública, isto é, enquanto uma solução-alternativa ao quadro de pobreza de cidadania.

Avaliação do Impacto de um Programa de Intervenção com Famílias Multiproblemáticas

Dissertação apresentada à Universidade Fernando Pessoa, como parte dos requisitos para a obtenção do grau de Mestre em Psicologia Jurídica

Grandparents and parenting: towards a theory of grandparenthood

This paper explores the changing role of contemporary grandparents with many demonstrating a willingness and ability to take on parental responsibilities for their grandchildren, where they may face challenges and opportunities in difficult times. Three main forms of grand parenting are identified in the literature, those who have primary responsibility and are raising their grand children as their main carers perhaps in response to crisis situations, those who live in extended families and participate in care, and those who provide day care while the child’s parents work. The latter has increased because of the increasing frequency of divorce, single parenting and the lack of available or subsidised child care in the United Kingdom. When grandparents step into a troubled situation and attempt to offer stability and security for their grandchildren they may have to manage the combined responsibilities of family caregivers and parental figures. Grandparenthood is a tenuous role, lacking clear agreement on behaviour norms. In the culture of advice and parenting support, while care must be taken not to undermine parenting skills or make judgements about the ability to cope with the demands of childcare, an exploration of the impact on grandparents and children must be undertaken. Due to the complex web of interrelated factors the process and outcomes of care giving by grandparents is not well known in the literature. It is proposed therefore that it is timely for research to be undertaken to explore and develop a theory of Grandparenthood.

Managing the risk of parenting

The aim of parents is to enable their children to become autonomous individuals capable of participating fully in the culture in which they live (Korbin 1997). Furthermore, the quality of parenting is reflected in an adult’s ability to recognize and adequately meet a child’s needs in a developmentally and emotionally appropriate manner (Donald & Jureidini 2004).Within contemporary society however, parents are faced with the tensions of providing boundaries whilst affording children rights. This in itself brings risks and a common thread that runs through approaches to parenting is the attempt to define a threshold of acceptable parenting. Above the threshold and a parent is good enough and below is not good enough. This paper will consider what the minimum requirements are and explore different dimensions of parenting. The concept of good enough parenting will be revisited in relation to risks that parents have to take, within the context of contemporary policy related to improving outcomes for children as enshrined in the Every Child Matters: Change for Children Agendas (Department for Education and skills 2003). The current dominance of a risk management approach to safeguarding children will be addressed within the context of a ‘risk society’ and the importance of the safety and well-being of the child will be examined It will be suggested that we need to achieve a better balance of ensuring the safety of the child, meeting the child's developmental needs, and supporting family functioning if we are to help parents manage the risks.

Can childhood neglect be prevented through parenting skills training?

Child neglect continues to be the most prevalent form of child maltreatment, yet it has received less specific research attention than other forms of maltreatment (Zuravin, 1999). It is only in recent years that neglect has been seen as a phenomenon that needs to be conceptualised separately to other forms of abuse (Gershater- Molko et al., 2002). Although the term ‘neglect’ is used generally when children do not receive minimal physical and/or emotional care, there is no single agreed definition; one possible reason for this is the lack of consensus about minimally adequate standards of childcare either within professional groups or existing research (Rose and Meezan, 1996; Stone, 1998).

The quality of parenting of individuals who had failed to thrive as children

Parenting behaviour is determined by a range of factors including personality, psychopathology, values, social support, child characteristics and socio-cultural influences. It has also been suggested that an individual's style of child-rearing is influenced by the style of parenting that they experienced as children. The relationships between children who fail-to-thrive and their parents are often characterized by interactional difficulties. Previous research using retrospective accounts suggested that mothers of children who fail-to-thrive for non-organic reasons themselves showed high levels of abuse, neglect, and deprivation during their childhoods. However, to date no one has investigated prospectively what kinds of parents failure-to-thrive individuals become. This paper examines the parenting experiences of individuals who had received psychosocial intervention for their non-organic failure-to-thrive as children over 20 years ago. Results suggest that where initial intervention failed to bring about long-term changes in family interactional patterns, there was a greater incidence of failure-to-thrive in the next generation. These families were characterized by dissatisfaction with the child, high levels of stress associated with the parenting role, and low levels of social support. However, where the family environment in the original study had changed substantially, the former clients' outcomes were more positive with their own children. These parents tended to find interaction with their children more rewarding, had good support networks and low levels of stress. The characteristics of particular cases are discussed in detail to illustrate differences between these two groups of individuals.

Parenting practices in Northern Ireland: evidence from the Northern Ireland Household Panel Survey

The impact of parental child-rearing practices on child outcomes has been the subject of much research and debate for many years. Studies carried out within a variety of disciplines and across a number of different countries in the world have indicated that parents tend to use a different pattern of rearing their sons than their daughters, and that child-rearing practices are related to the gender of the parent, as well as to the age and developmental stage of the child. However, there has been little research in Northern Ireland on child-rearing behaviours. In order to address this shortfall, this paper presents an analysis of parents’ perceptions of their interactions with their children. Data from Wave 3 of the Northern Ireland Household Panel Survey were analysed to explore aspects of ‘‘negative’’ parenting practices (arguing, yelling and use of physical punishment) as well as ‘‘positive’’ parenting practices (talking, praising and hugging). The participants were all parents (aged 16 years and over) with children under the age of 16 years living in the same household. Each parent reported his/her interaction with each child (up to a maximum of six children), and in total 1,629 responses were recorded. The results of the research supported previous findings from the United Kingdom and elsewhere, and indicated that the parenting styles of respondents in Northern Ireland were indeed related to the gender and age of the children and to the gender of the parents. The survey found that parents in Northern Ireland tend to have a harsher, more negative style of parenting boys than girls and that children in their teenage years have fewer positive interactions with their parents than younger children. The same parents and children will be followed up in 2007 in order to provide a longitudinal analysis of parent/child relationships in Northern Ireland.

Prevalence of childhood abuse in mothers taking part in a study of parenting their own children.

This paper describes the incidence of maltreatment histories in a community sample of mothers of one-year old infants in Northern Ireland. The occurrence of five subsets of childhood maltreatment is examined: emotional abuse, emotional neglect, physical abuse, physical neglect and sexual abuse. Of the 201 women who completed the Childhood Trauma Questionnaire (CTQ), 70 mothers (35%) reported experiencing one or more types of maltreatment during childhood. Forty-eight mothers (24%) gave a history of being emotionally abused, 43 (21%) of emotional neglect, 27 (13%) of physical abuse, 20 (10%) of sexual abuse, and 19 (10%) of physical neglect. Physical abuse was the only type of maltreatment which showed an association with maternal socio-economic status, with higher incidence reported amongst Occupational Classes 4 and 5 (lower supervisory and technical occupations and semi-routine and routine groups). More than half of those with a history of abuse experienced more than one type of maltreatment (42 mothers or 60% of those reporting maltreatment). Differences in rates of incidence to more recent studies on younger adults are discussed, as well as implications for prevention and intervention.

Parenting stress and children with cerebral palsy: A European cross-sectional survey

Aim
The aim of this study was to describe stress in the parents of children with cerebral palsy and investigate associations with very high stress.

Method
A cross-sectional survey was conducted of parents of 818 children aged 8 to 12 years from nine regions in Europe. Families were eligible to participate if they were living in one of the specified geographic areas. Parental stress was captured using the Parenting Stress Index Short Form, which has 36 items and takes 10 minutes to complete. Parents rate items on a 5-point Likert scale, with higher scores indicating higher stress. The Short Form yields scores on three subscales and a Total Stress score. A trained research associate administered the questionnaire in the child’s home and visits lasted 90 to 120 minutes. All data collected were reported by parents unless otherwise stated.

Results
The Total Stress score on the Parenting Stress Index was dichotomized into scores of less than 99 or 99 or more, the latter indicating ‘very high’ stress. Most respondents were mothers (94%), and 26% reported very high stress levels. The parents of children with communication impairment had higher odds for very high stress (odds ratio [OR] 1.9; 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.2–3.0) than those whose child had no such impairment; the parents of children with moderate or severe pain had higher odds for very high stress (OR 1.7 [95% CI 1.1–2.4] and 2.5 [95% CI 1.5–4.3] respectively) than those whose child had no pain; and the parents of children with an intellectual impairment had higher odds for very high stress (OR 1.8; 95% CI 1.2–2.9) than those whose child had none. There was no association between very high stress and motor impairment. The subscales ‘parent–child dysfunctional interaction’ and ‘difficult child’ contributed most to the Total Stress score.

Interpretation
Parents of children with communication difficulties, intellectual impairment, or pain are at very high risk of stress. The final model explained 12% of the observed variation in very high stress.