A experiência em grupo: buscando formas alternativas à punição / A group experiment: searching for alternatives to punishment

ABSTRACT

Based on data collection from the research entitled "Psychosocial analysis of children living on the streets of Ipatinga", (unpublished), together with the project at the "Community Garden" was perceived the emerging demand to study about the different forms of family violence. Gathering information with project monitors as well as with the children about their abuse, this speculation was confirmed. The children were being target of many forms of abuse, including physical punishment by the family members, mainly by their mothers, under the influence of drug abuse. In relation to physical punishment, the situation aggravates when mothers see no other alternatives to deal with quotidian pressures and education methods to deal with their children. Thinking about this problem, professionals of this program decided to develop simultaneous study to evaluate the different forms of conflict between mothers and children. Through the formation of mothers' group meeting every two weeks, the authors proposed discussions of problems to enable them find other methods of correcting their children as well as encourage them to talk about ways to solve their socialûeconomic problems. The results show that violence can not be analyzed only by the physical action, but rather by interrelating the mothers' life history and the ways society produces mechanisms of controlling coercive activities...