Crianças com síndrome de Down e problemas de comportamento: estilos e práticas educativas de seus genitores

Abstract

This study aimed to identify and describe parenting styles and educational practical from progenitors of Down syndrome (DS) children and verify their relationship with behavioral problems. The study participants were 16 mothers and 9 fathers of children with DS. The instruments used were: Questionnaire of Family System Characteristics, Parenting Practical Inventory, Parenting Styles Questionnaire (PAQ) and the Behavior Problems Inventory (BPI-01). The results have showed that the mothers are the main responsible for home and SD child care. About the social network of social support, relatives from mother’s family are most of time the support to the group. About the non-family network, can be highlighted the neighborhood, friends as well as professionals and institutions. Regarding to parenting styles was seen that most of the progenitors show an authoritative style followed by the authoritarian, whereas the permissive was not demonstrated. Expressive differences were not found between fathers and mothers parenting practices, however it was verified that both have accomplished more the affective practices than didactic practices. According to the progenitors, the most frequent behavioral problem presented by their children was the stereotyped behavior, and the less expressed were the self-aggressive and aggressive behavior. Moderated and negative correlations were obtained from the authoritarian parental style and parental practice of disciplinary involvement, and weakened and negative correlations from the disciplinary involvement and the severity of stereotyped behaviors. Furthermore, were also obtained positive correlation between the authoritarian parental style and the severity of stereotyped behavior problems. Therefore, these results points out that negative practice are related positively with behavioral problems, which corroborate to the literature. As long as researches in this area are limited, the importance of further studies is highlighted.