MEANINGS MADE BY CHILDREN OF WOMEN WITH SEVERE MENTAL ILLNESS ABOUT THEIR FAMILY RELATIONSHIP.

• Grant number: 12/04165-1
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master
• Start date: November 01, 2012
• End date: May 31, 2014
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Psychology - Psychological Treatment and Prevention
• Principal Investigator: Carla Guanaes Lorenzi
• Grantee: Marilia Belfiore Palácio
• Host Institution: Faculdade de Filosofia, Ciências e Letras de Ribeirão Preto (FFCLRP). Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Ribeirão Preto , SP, Brazil
• Associated scholarship(s): 13/10546-0 - Implication of social construction of deficit discourse for children of mother with a severe mental illness, BE.EP.MS

Abstract

The Psychiatric Reform brought about a change in the discourses concerning the participation of the family in the mental illness treatments, reinforcing the need for family proximity and care. Specifically about the mother-child relationship, scientific literature has been focused on the perspective of mothers with mental illnesses, generally emphasizing how this interaction can be harmful to their children. From a different perspective, this project aims to understand how children of mothers with a severe mental disorder make meanings about their relationship with their mothers as they grew up, especially considering the narratives about resources developed by them. This study will count with the participation of eight to ten people, children of women users of a mental health service in the city of Ribeirao Preto (São Paulo - Brazil), diagnosed with a severe mental illness (schizophrenia). Data collection will take place in two stages. First, participants will be invited to participate in a semi-structured individual interview about their life history. In this interview, they will also be invited to participate in a meeting of discussion group, whose goal is the production of a collective narrative about the resources developed throughout their life stories, emphasizing how they lived with the situation of mental illness of their mothers. Both individual interviews and focus groups will be audio-recorded and later literally transcribed. The material will be analyzed based on the contributions of the social constructionist movement in psychology, specifically focusing on the meaning making process through discursive practices. For that, participants will take part on the construction of dialogic maps, favorable to the analysis of the diversity of meanings negotiated in each of the contexts. At the end of this analysis, it is expected that it help to understand the meanings children of women with severe mental disorders construct about their relationships with their mothers, considering specifically their resources which, in turn, may be useful for the development of mental health practices aimed at strengthening family engagement in treatment.

Academic Publications

(References retrieved automatically from State of São Paulo Research Institutions)

PALÁCIO, Marilia Belfiore. Meanings made about relationship of children and mothers diagnosed with a mental illness: in between resources and deficits.. 2014. Master's Dissertation - Universidade de São Paulo (USP). Faculdade de Filosofia, Ciências e Letras de Ribeirão Preto (PCARP/BC) Ribeirão Preto.