Daily life and educational parenting practices: the perception of families of children undergoing psychological stress.

Abstract

Objective: to identify the perceptions of parents of children undergoing psychological stress on the activities they develop together, the educational practices they use in their daily life, and how they see these practices influence the children’s behavior. Ten parents of children aged from 6 to 10 years linked to the Occupational Therapy Program for Children’s and Adolescent’s Mental Health participated in this study. We used a semi-structured interview script, whose results we analyzed using the content analysis technique. We observed that most participants share daily life activities with their children, have a routine with planned activities and schedules, with responsibilities and rules in the family context; parents often adopt affective behaviors and use different educational practices according to the situation. We verified there are no parenting educational strategies that represent all participants, because the relationship pattern depends on the context of each family. These results indicate important points to be considered in actions for children undergoing psychological stress and their respective families.