Este artigo discute estudos sobre a família atual e as situações que ocorrem quando existe uma criança deficiente na família. Parte do princípio de que não se pode negar a importância de aspectos ambientais no desenvolvimento e de que as famílias são fundamentais para o desenvolvimento das crianças. Quando existe uma criança deficiente na família, esta não irá, necessariamente, causar transtornos familiares, mas a ocorrência destes dependerá de múltiplos fatores, desde as crenças dos pais até os recursos da família em lidar com a deficiência. Além disso, mostra que os pais desejam e merecem ser tratados de forma sensível pelos profissionais que atendem seus filhos.

Impacto da notícia da síndrome de Down para os pais: histórias de vida

O impacto da deficiência nos irmãos: histórias de vida

This study was conducted in order to observe interactions among twenty children living in a sheltered home and their care-givers. Using ethnographic methodology, these children (between ten months and five years old) were observed during half-hour meetings held twice a week for three and a half months. The findings indicate a lack of training among the care-givers, reflected in verbal hostility towards the children, with limited care, few words of encouragement and little physical contact. At the same time, it was noted that the children searched continuously for attention and care from other adults visiting the home. This underscores the need to prevent and restructure poor relationships between care-givers and children, shaping healthy environment for their development.

The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between parenting styles and children's social skills, establishing significant correlations between those two constructs. A total of 202 children, 7 to 10 years old, male and female, attending second to fourth year of government schools in São Paulo, Brazil, were participants of this research. They collectively completed Children's Social Skills Test (THAS-C) and Parental Styles Inventory (IEP). Results suggest that positive parental styles are predictors of altruism, while negative parental styles are predictors of assertiveness, conversation, and social confidence. Regarding general social skills, variables that offered the best probable model were positive monitoring, lax discipline, moral behavior, and physical abuse (the higher the general social skill, the lesser the abusive parenting styles). As a conclusion, it seems that different social skills are related to positive and negative parenting styles, reinforcing the idea of a social skill as an attribute of behavior.