Intrafamiliary violence and its impact on the development of the volunteer domain of child and adolescent conduct: a proposed intervention for caregivers

• Grant number: 19/05306-7
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Master
• Start date: September 01, 2019
• End date: October 31, 2021
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - Psychology - Social Psychology
• Principal Investigator: Alex Sandro Gomes Pessoa
• Grantee: Débora Ananias Guimarães
• Host Institution: Centro de Educação e Ciências Humanas (CECH). Universidade Federal de São Carlos (UFSCAR). São Carlos , SP, Brazil

Abstract

Violence, as well as the mechanisms that support its perpetuation, are related to a socially constructed phenomenon. Although there is a wide variability in the typification of violence, it is known that its occurrence can bring damages to the victims in different dimensions. It is in this scenario of multiple manifestations of violence, widespread in the social fabric, that children and adolescents are among the main victims, including in the intrafamily environment. By hypothesis, in addition to the various physical and psychological damages caused to the victims, it is believed that intrafamilial violence may lead to damages for the development of the voluntary domain of the conduct of children and adolescents. Thus, the general objective of this project is to develop and apply an intervention, having as its central theme the voluntary domain of conduct, which helps parents who practice domestic violence in the construction of healthy educational practices. The theoretical reference of this research is based on historical-cultural psychology, whose main representative is the Russian psychologist L.S. Vygotsky. This is a qualitative, intervention-type research. A medium-term intervention (approximately 10 sessions) will be developed, which will later be applied with 3 groups, each of which will consist of 3 to 4 families using the service of a Specialized Reference Center for Social Assistance (CREAS). The evaluation of the impact of the intervention will take place in two stages. Firstly, during the last session of the intervention, a focus group will be held with each group, in order to ascertain how participants adhered to what was presented during the program development, what has changed within their family environments, as well as suggestions about what could be improved in the intervention. Through the information obtained in the first evaluation process, that is, after the focus groups, a family in each of the groups - that better adhere to the intervention work according to pre-established criteria - will be invited to participate in a second stage evaluation, which consists of Systematized Observations (OS) carried out by the researcher.The three families selected will be closely monitored for a period of approximately two months. The process will consist of the researchers' prolonged insertion into their natural family environments (in loco). There will be about two to three visits a week, during periods when the family is most of the time gathered, especially the person who committed the aggression and the victim. In addition, during the period of systematized observations, a field diary will be used to record data that is associated with the intervention that the families participated in. The data that emerge from the field work will be analyzed through content analysis and Atlas.TI software will be used to systematize this material. Thus, it is considered that, before these two stages of evaluation, the impact of the intervention can be analyzed, broadening the understanding about the phenomenon investigated and in relation to intervention models that assist parents and caregivers in establishing healthy educational practices that corroborate the development of the voluntary domain of conduct in children and adolescents. (AU)