ABSTRACT
Resumo Pretende-se averiguar se o estresse parental e o apoio social contribuem para o envolvimento paterno (EP), e analisar a relação desse envolvimento com variáveis sociodemográficas (pai/criança). Participaram do estudo 92 homens, pais de crianças em idade escolar (6 a 9 anos). Utilizou-se a Escala de Envolvimento Paterno e as adaptações portuguesas do Parenting Stress Index-Short Form e do Social Support Questionaire. Verificou-se que apenas o estresse parental (Interação e Criança) se constitui como preditor do EP (Cuidados e Disponibilidade). Verificou-se ainda uma associação entre o EP e o número de filhos. Os resultados sugerem que níveis elevados de estresse parental poderão ser prejudiciais para o envolvimento do pai em termos de cuidados e disponibilidade, sendo também relevante o maior número de filhos.
Abstract This study aims to ascertain whether parenting stress and social support contribute to father involvement (FI), and to analyze the relationship between this involvement and sociodemographic variables (parent/child). The participants were 92 men, parents of school-aged children (6 to 9 years). The Father Involvement Scale and the Portuguese adaptions of the Parenting Stress Index-Short Form and Social Support Questionaire. Only parenting stress (Interaction and Child subscales) was found to be a predictor of FI (Caring and Availability subscales). A relationship between FI and the number of children was also observed. The results suggest that high levels of parenting stress may jeopardize fathers' involvement in terms of caring and availability, while the higher number of children is also a relevant factor.
ABSTRACT
This study focuses on mothers of children diagnosed with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and sets out (1) to characterize dimensions of both parental functioning (parenting stress and parental practices) and child characteristics (behaviour) and (2) to determine predictors of parenting stress, namely parental rearing practices or perceived behaviour of the child, in order to plan intervention with the families. Fifty-two mothers of children diagnosed with ADHD and aged 6-12 years participated in the study. The Portuguese versions of the Parenting Stress Index (Abidin and Santos 2003), EMBU-P (Canavarro and Pereira 2007) and Child Behaviour Checklist (Albuquerque et al. 1999) were used. Results showed that mothers of children with ADHD experience higher levels of parenting stress (emerging essentially from the child's characteristics) and report more behavioural problems in their children (for girls and boys), but use parental practices similar to those of the mothers of the Portuguese validation sample. Results also indicate that child behaviour (both internalized and externalized) and parental practices dominated by rejection predict parenting stress. These findings have implications for intervention with children diagnosed with ADHD and their families.
