abstract: Adverse childhood family environments have been found to have long-term effects on a child's well-being. Although no prior studies have examined the direct effects of childhood family adversities on nighttime blood pressure (BP) dip, parental death and divorce in childhood, have been associated with a variety of related psychological problems in adulthood. The current study examined the direct effects of parental death and divorce in childhood and quality of early family relationships on adult nighttime BP dip as well as the mediating role of three psychosocial factors (depression, hostility and social stress). One hundred and forty-three young adults were asked to complete self-reported measures of the three psychosocial factors and quality of family relationships. Study participants wore an ambulatory blood pressure (ABP) monitor over a 24-hr period in order to assess nocturnal BP dip. Although neither childhood family adversity nor quality of childhood family relationships directly predicted nighttime BP dipping, quality of early family relationships predicted all three psychosocial factors, and hostility was found to mediate the relationship between quality of childhood family relationships and nighttime systolic BP dip. Early family experiences play an important role in influencing nighttime cardiovascular functioning by influencing an individual's psychological functioning in young adulthood. Because nighttime non-dipping has been associated with increased risk for cardiovascular disease and other serious health conditions, the results of the present study have important clinical implications and provide specific psychosocial pathways that may be targeted in future programs designed to prevent and treat cardiovascular disease. / Dissertation/Thesis / M.A. Psychology 2012

Abstract Early family characteristics may influence the later development of severe mental disorders and criminality of a child. The association between an adverse family environment during childhood and its later consequences in adulthood, however, are still widely open. The aim of the present study was to analyse in a longitudinal perspective, family risks of severe hospital-treated mental disorders and criminal behaviour in the Northern Finland 1966 Birth Cohort and to develop a descriptive life span model of schizophrenia. A large, general population birth cohort (N =11 017), the Northern Finland 1966 Birth Cohort was used as a study population. This database provides the information of prospectively collected data on both biological and social aspects of pregnancy, the characteristics of family, the mother, the father, and the child. The information of psychiatric outcomes was gathered from the Finnish Hospital Discharge Register (FHDR) and the data on registered criminal behaviour of the cohort members come from computerized files maintained by the Ministry of Justice. Children born to multiparous mothers (GMP) i.e. those that had undergone at least six deliveries were more commonly treated in mental hospitals later in life (4.5% vs. 3.4%; p=0.028) than children born to mothers that have fewer children. Of the diagnostic groups, the risk of psychoses other than schizophrenia (OR 2.3; 95% CI 1.2-4.7), and depressive disorders (OR 2.2; 1.0-4.5) was elevated among adult children of those mothers. Birth order was associated with adult schizophrenia. The risk was elevated among male firstborns (ratio 1.5; 95% CI 1.0-2.2), but it was lower than expected among male lastborns (ratio 0.7; 95% CI 0.5-0.9). The elevated risk was not significantly associated with female schizophrenia patients. On the contrary, the risk was lower than expected among females who were not first, not last or not only children in the family (ratio 0.6; 95% CI 0.3-0.9). Among males the risk for violent crimes later in life was elevated among the only children (OR 1.8; 95% CI 1.1-3.0). If perinatal risk was additional exposure, the risk increased up to 4-fold (OR 4.4; 95% CI 1.9-10.8). Combining with maternal risks increased the risk up to 6-fold (OR 5.9; 95% CI 3.1-11.3) and with paternal risk up to 8-fold (OR 8.4; 95% CI 3.9-18.1), respectively. Among females the absence of the father during childhood until the age of 14 was the strongest risk factor in predicting later criminality (OR 2.5; 95% CI 1.4-4.3). Further, in the families, where the father was present, maternal smoking during pregnancy together with being born unwanted increased the prevalence for criminal offending significantly up to 7.2%. In conclusion, some characteristics of the early childhood family environment were associated with mental disorders and criminality in adulthood and form part of the developmental trajectory of these disorders. Early detection of such children at risk is important in preventing mental disorders and criminality in adulthood.

Introdução: a linguagem representa um aspecto fundamental para a vida em sociedade. No entanto, o desenvolvimento sociocomunicativo está atrelado à forma como os pais percebem seus filhos, às atribuições de significados sobre as manifestações da criança e ao lugar em que essa criança ocupa no núcleo familiar. Em indivíduos com transtornos do desenvolvimento esses aspectos são igualmente preponderantes. As crianças com Transtorno do Espectro do Autismo (TEA) têm dificuldades em entender e usar a linguagem, especialmente em situações sociais. Assim, devido à complexidade do desenvolvimento comunicativo, é essencial incluir e dar suporte comunicativo aos pais e/ ou cuidadores de crianças com TEA, ampliando as condições e possibilidades psicossociais. Objetivo: verificar os benefícios de um Programa de Orientações sobre Comunicação para Cuidadores (POCC) de crianças com TEA analisando seus efeitos na percepção dos cuidadores quanto ao perfil funcional da comunicação destas crianças e quanto à percepção das dificuldades comunicativas. Método: Participaram desta pesquisa cuidadores de 62 crianças com diagnóstico de TEA, divididos em três grupos de intervenções. Todas as intervenções envolviam um programa de cinco sessões de orientações mensais pré-estabelecidas, visando fornecer informações sobre o desenvolvimento da comunicação e incentivar atividades práticas de comunicação no cotidiano. No primeiro grupo, os cuidadores receberam o programa de orientações em grupo e as crianças tratamento fonoaudiológico individual. No segundo, os cuidadores receberam o mesmo programa de orientações, mas de forma individual, e seus filhos terapia individual. O terceiro grupo, composto por cuidadores de crianças que aguardavam atendimento fonoaudiológico em lista de espera, recebeu as orientações em grupo. Em todos os grupos foram investigadas as percepções dos cuidadores quanto a competência funcional de comunicação das crianças conforme o Perfil Funcional da Comunicação-Checklist (PFC-C). Além disso buscou-se compreender a percepção de dificuldades comunicativas dos mesmos quanto ao Questionário sobre Dificuldades Comunicativas (QDC) percebidas por pais e/ou cuidadores de crianças com TEA. Os questionários foram aplicados em três momentos: marco zero e intervalos de cinco e de oito meses. Os participantes responderam um questionário de satisfação ao final do segundo intervalo, para avaliação do programa de orientações. Resultados: No PFC-C os pais relataram um aumento da ocorrência dos meios gestual, vocal e verbal em todos os grupos, para expressar as funções comunicativas interpessoais, exceto no grupo de cuidadores que recebeu o programa de orientações em grupo e as crianças tratamento fonoaudiológico individual. Nas funções comunicativas não interpessoais notou-se uma diminuição na ocorrência do meio comunicativo gestual, um aumento no meio verbal, sem diferença estatística entre os grupos. Quanto ao meio vocal, não houve diferença ao longo do tempo. No QDC observou-se a diminuição das dificuldades comunicativas dos cuidadores, sem diferença entre os grupos. O questionário de satisfação demonstrou altas pontuações quanto à realização do programa para todos os grupos. Conclusões: o Programa de Orientações sobre Comunicação para Cuidadores de crianças com TEA apresentado parece contribuir para o entendimento do processo comunicativo em diferentes situações, associados ou não ao tratamento fonoaudiológico, notando a diminuição de dificuldades comunicativas e aprimorando a percepção sobre a funcionalidade da comunicação / Introduction: language represents a fundamental aspect for life in society. However, sociocommunicative development is linked to the way parents perceive their children, the attributions of meanings about the child\'s manifestations, and the place where the child occupies in the family nucleus. In individuals with developmental disorders these aspects are equally prevalent. Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) have difficulty understanding and using language, especially in social situations. Thus, due to the complexity of communicative development, it is essential to include and provide communicative support to parents and / or caregivers of children with ASD, expanding psychosocial conditions and possibilities. Objective: to verify the benefits of a Caregivers Communicative Orientation Program (CCOP) of children with ASD, analyzing their effects on the perception of caregivers as to the communication profile of these children and the perception of communicative difficulties. Method: Caregivers of 62 children diagnosed with ASD participated in this study, divided into three groups of interventions. All interventions include a program with five pre-established monthly orientation sessions to provide information on the development of communication and encourage practical communication activities in daily life. In the first group, caregivers received the group orientation program and the children received individual speechlanguage therapy. In the second, caregivers received the same program guidelines, but individually, and their children individual therapy. The third group, comprised of caregivers of children who waited for speech-language therapy on the waiting list, received group orientation. In all groups, the perceptions of the caregivers regarding the functional competence of communication of the children according to the Functional Communication Profile -Checklist (FCP-C) were investigated. In addition, we sought to understand the perception of their communicative difficulties regarding the Questionnaire on Communicative Difficulties (QDC) perceived by parents and / or caregivers of children with ASD. The questionnaires were applied in three moments: baseline and intervals of five and eight months. The participants answered a satisfaction questionnaire at the end of the second interval, to evaluate the orientation program. Results: In the FCP-C the parents reported an increase in the occurrence of the gestual, vocal and verbal means in all the groups, to express the interpersonal communicative functions, except in the group of caregivers who received the group orientation program and the children speech-language therapy individual. In the non-interpersonal communicative functions, there was a decrease in the occurrence of the gestural communicative medium, an increase in the verbal environment, with no statistical difference between the groups. As for the vocal environment, there was no difference over time. The QDC observed the decrease in the communicative difficulties of the caregivers, with no difference between the groups. The satisfaction questionnaire showed high scores regarding the achievement of the program for all groups. Conclusions: The Caregivers Communicative Orientation Program of children with ASD seems to contribute to the understanding of the communicative process in different situations, associated or not with speech-language therapy, noting the reduction of communicative difficulties and improving the perception about communication functionality

Introdução: a linguagem representa um aspecto fundamental para a vida em sociedade. No entanto, o desenvolvimento sociocomunicativo está atrelado à forma como os pais percebem seus filhos, às atribuições de significados sobre as manifestações da criança e ao lugar em que essa criança ocupa no núcleo familiar. Em indivíduos com transtornos do desenvolvimento esses aspectos são igualmente preponderantes. As crianças com Transtorno do Espectro do Autismo (TEA) têm dificuldades em entender e usar a linguagem, especialmente em situações sociais. Assim, devido à complexidade do desenvolvimento comunicativo, é essencial incluir e dar suporte comunicativo aos pais e/ ou cuidadores de crianças com TEA, ampliando as condições e possibilidades psicossociais. Objetivo: verificar os benefícios de um Programa de Orientações sobre Comunicação para Cuidadores (POCC) de crianças com TEA analisando seus efeitos na percepção dos cuidadores quanto ao perfil funcional da comunicação destas crianças e quanto à percepção das dificuldades comunicativas. Método: Participaram desta pesquisa cuidadores de 62 crianças com diagnóstico de TEA, divididos em três grupos de intervenções. Todas as intervenções envolviam um programa de cinco sessões de orientações mensais pré-estabelecidas, visando fornecer informações sobre o desenvolvimento da comunicação e incentivar atividades práticas de comunicação no cotidiano. No primeiro grupo, os cuidadores receberam o programa de orientações em grupo e as crianças tratamento fonoaudiológico individual. No segundo, os cuidadores receberam o mesmo programa de orientações, mas de forma individual, e seus filhos terapia individual. O terceiro grupo, composto por cuidadores de crianças que aguardavam atendimento fonoaudiológico em lista de espera, recebeu as orientações em grupo. Em todos os grupos foram investigadas as percepções dos cuidadores quanto a competência funcional de comunicação das crianças conforme o Perfil Funcional da Comunicação-Checklist (PFC-C). Além disso buscou-se compreender a percepção de dificuldades comunicativas dos mesmos quanto ao Questionário sobre Dificuldades Comunicativas (QDC) percebidas por pais e/ou cuidadores de crianças com TEA. Os questionários foram aplicados em três momentos: marco zero e intervalos de cinco e de oito meses. Os participantes responderam um questionário de satisfação ao final do segundo intervalo, para avaliação do programa de orientações. Resultados: No PFC-C os pais relataram um aumento da ocorrência dos meios gestual, vocal e verbal em todos os grupos, para expressar as funções comunicativas interpessoais, exceto no grupo de cuidadores que recebeu o programa de orientações em grupo e as crianças tratamento fonoaudiológico individual. Nas funções comunicativas não interpessoais notou-se uma diminuição na ocorrência do meio comunicativo gestual, um aumento no meio verbal, sem diferença estatística entre os grupos. Quanto ao meio vocal, não houve diferença ao longo do tempo. No QDC observou-se a diminuição das dificuldades comunicativas dos cuidadores, sem diferença entre os grupos. O questionário de satisfação demonstrou altas pontuações quanto à realização do programa para todos os grupos. Conclusões: o Programa de Orientações sobre Comunicação para Cuidadores de crianças com TEA apresentado parece contribuir para o entendimento do processo comunicativo em diferentes situações, associados ou não ao tratamento fonoaudiológico, notando a diminuição de dificuldades comunicativas e aprimorando a percepção sobre a funcionalidade da comunicação / Introduction: language represents a fundamental aspect for life in society. However, sociocommunicative development is linked to the way parents perceive their children, the attributions of meanings about the child\'s manifestations, and the place where the child occupies in the family nucleus. In individuals with developmental disorders these aspects are equally prevalent. Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) have difficulty understanding and using language, especially in social situations. Thus, due to the complexity of communicative development, it is essential to include and provide communicative support to parents and / or caregivers of children with ASD, expanding psychosocial conditions and possibilities. Objective: to verify the benefits of a Caregivers Communicative Orientation Program (CCOP) of children with ASD, analyzing their effects on the perception of caregivers as to the communication profile of these children and the perception of communicative difficulties. Method: Caregivers of 62 children diagnosed with ASD participated in this study, divided into three groups of interventions. All interventions include a program with five pre-established monthly orientation sessions to provide information on the development of communication and encourage practical communication activities in daily life. In the first group, caregivers received the group orientation program and the children received individual speechlanguage therapy. In the second, caregivers received the same program guidelines, but individually, and their children individual therapy. The third group, comprised of caregivers of children who waited for speech-language therapy on the waiting list, received group orientation. In all groups, the perceptions of the caregivers regarding the functional competence of communication of the children according to the Functional Communication Profile -Checklist (FCP-C) were investigated. In addition, we sought to understand the perception of their communicative difficulties regarding the Questionnaire on Communicative Difficulties (QDC) perceived by parents and / or caregivers of children with ASD. The questionnaires were applied in three moments: baseline and intervals of five and eight months. The participants answered a satisfaction questionnaire at the end of the second interval, to evaluate the orientation program. Results: In the FCP-C the parents reported an increase in the occurrence of the gestual, vocal and verbal means in all the groups, to express the interpersonal communicative functions, except in the group of caregivers who received the group orientation program and the children speech-language therapy individual. In the non-interpersonal communicative functions, there was a decrease in the occurrence of the gestural communicative medium, an increase in the verbal environment, with no statistical difference between the groups. As for the vocal environment, there was no difference over time. The QDC observed the decrease in the communicative difficulties of the caregivers, with no difference between the groups. The satisfaction questionnaire showed high scores regarding the achievement of the program for all groups. Conclusions: The Caregivers Communicative Orientation Program of children with ASD seems to contribute to the understanding of the communicative process in different situations, associated or not with speech-language therapy, noting the reduction of communicative difficulties and improving the perception about communication functionality

To date, no prior research has examined the combined roles of childhood family adversity and pubertal timing in longitudinal pathways to depressive symptomatology in adulthood. The present study was conducted with 225 men and 225 women to explore the unique and combined roles of childhood family adversity and pubertal timing on depressive symptoms in a community sample of married adults. Results for both men and women indicated significant main effects of a cumulatively risky family environment on depressive symptoms, as well as main effects of families with higher levels of abuse and neglect, chaos and disorganization, and interpersonal family conflict. A significant moderating relation was found for women with earlier pubertal timing and higher levels of childhood interpersonal family conflict on greater levels of depressive symptoms in adulthood. No other significant relations were determined in other moderation and mediational analyses. This project furthers our understanding of how the combined roles of pubertal timing and childhood family experiences can clarify the developmental, evolutionary, and clinical theories that link childhood and adolescent experiences to depression in adulthood. Specifically, childhood home environments defined by frequent interpersonal conflict (quarreling, arguing, and shouting), combined with early pubertal development, may play an important role in predicating depressive symptomatology among adult women.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-07-29T15:13:41Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 dissertacaodenise.pdf: 1448047 bytes, checksum: 995a2779a0af3816135d096fb57bae2f (MD5) Previous issue date: 2006-10-30 / This research set out to study the meaning and significance of childhood, family and crèche for educators and family members of children attending a philanthropic institute in the southern region of Goiânia. In order to carry out this investigation, the socio-historical-dialectical method was used to study the phenomena of the concrete reality, in ongoing relationships with other phenomena, which are formed in the contradictions of antagonistic forces of movement and transformation. The unfolding of the social reality from a perspective of wholeness requires work of appropriation, organization and exposition of the facts, in which the target is the thought-out concrete reality. This theoretical appropriation involves the exercise of critical interpretation and evaluation of the facts, as a fundamental prerequisite for dialectic thinking. As a result of this epistemological stance, a qualitative approach was proposed for the investigative process and for the treatment of information. To arrive at these, semi-structured interviews were used, in which the subjects co-participants of the research process were able to express their opinions freely about the proposed themes, in order to allow for a broader understanding of the object under investigation. Working from these theoretical methodological presuppositions, an effort was made to understand the different meanings which family members and educators build around the role of the family and crèche, in caring and educating in the early years of childhood. In the analysis of the speech of the subjects, an understanding was sought of the meanings attributed to childhood: those connected to an idealized and naturalized conception of the child or those which permit an understanding of them as social subjects, involved in the concrete reality of social relationships. As well as that, it was hoped to grasp the conception of education, through analyzing the meaning attributed to the family and crèche in the social task of caring for and educating children from birth to the age of three. At different moments throughout this analytical process, it was possible to detail the meaning which the subjects attributed to the proposed themes and relate the similarities and differences between the constructed meanings, in their individual and social journeys. Meaning is understood as the most stable dimension of the word, but only one of the meaning zones which it acquires in the context of a discourse. Meaning is the sum of all the psychological factors which a word provokes in the conscience. It is the most singular aspect of the subject. Even though this distinction is adopted, the concepts of significance and meaning are understood as inseparable in the awareness of the subject, in his/her concrete involvement in life. These two dimensions in the process of meaning express the singularity and universality of social life in which the subject is, at the same time, product and producer. Thus, in this study, meaning and significance were analyzed at the same time, in the search for an understanding of the dialectic between the two. However, preference was given to the analysis of significance in order to make a comparison possible between two groups of interlocutors: family members and educators. The organizing plank of this investigation was the family, understood both as the milieu and as the social group, made up of people who assume different roles, and live out complex affective exchanges. They construct and reconstruct their understanding of the world and of themselves, mutually influencing each other to the extent that they are organized to satisfy individual and group necessities. Their involvement in the educational milieu of the crèche by means of the child provokes a construction of meanings and significance permeated by conflict and tensions in the social group. / A presente pesquisa tem como objeto de estudo os sentidos e significados de infância, família e creche atribuídos por educadoras e familiares de crianças atendidas por uma creche filantrópica da região sul de Goiânia. Para empreender esta tarefa investigativa, optou-se pelo método sócio-histórico-dialético, que estuda os fenômenos da realidade concreta em permanente articulação com outros fenômenos, constituídos nas relações de contradições entre forças antagônicas, de movimento e transformação. Foi necessário, para tanto, retomarmos a leitura dos clássicos que contribuíram para a construção da concepção dialética de mundo e de homem que orientam essa opção metodológica: Marx (1985 e 1980), Marx e Engels (2005), Gramsci (1987), Kosik (1986), Vasquez (1986), Wallon (1981, 1975), bem como seus interpretes mais recentes: Barbosa (1997), Barbosa, Magalhães e Alves(2003), Rey (2003 e 1997), Andery (2000), Ianni (1985), Carone (1984), Frigotto (1989), Gamboa (1989), dentre outros. Como decorrência desta postura epistemológica, propôs-se uma abordagem qualitativa, no processo investigativo e no tratamento das informações. Na obtenção dessas, optou-se pela entrevista semi-aberta, em que os sujeitos - co-participantes - do processo de pesquisa puderam manifestar livremente suas opiniões sobre os temas propostos, a fim de possibilitar uma compreensão mais ampla do objeto investigado. Na análise das falas dos sujeitos, buscou-se compreender que significados são atribuídos à infância: aqueles ligados a uma concepção idealizada e naturalizada de criança ou aqueles que permitem compreendê-la como sujeito social, inserido na realidade concreta das relações sociais. Além disso, pretendeu-se captar a concepção de educação, analisando o significado atribuído à família e à creche na tarefa social de cuidar e educar as crianças na idade de zero a três anos. Neste processo de análise, em vários momentos, foi possível explicitar os sentidos que os sujeitos atribuíam aos temas propostos e relacionar as semelhanças e diferenças entre os significados construídos, em suas trajetórias individuais e sociais. Para tanto, partiu-se do referencial teórico de Vygotsky (2001, 1989, 1987) e Bakhtin (1999). O eixo articulador desta investigação foi a família, compreendida como meio e como grupo social, constituído por sujeitos, que assumem determinados papéis, vivenciam complexas trocas afetivas, constroem e reconstroem sua compreensão de mundo e de si mesmas, influenciando-se mutuamente, na medida em que se articulam para a satisfação das necessidades individuais e do grupo. Sua inserção, por meio da criança, no ambiente educativo da creche provoca no grupo social a construção de sentidos e significados permeados por conflitos e tensões.

The Diploma thesis deals with the issue of availability of early Childhood Care in the South Bohemia region. The theoretical part of the thesis is focused on the analysis if current family policy, which is key in this situation, and the related needs of families with children who have not entered preschool education yet. It describes the conditions and forms of institutional care for children under six years of age, with emphasis on forms of early childcare in the Czech Republic, including current changes that are currently planned by the competent ministry. It maps the situation and the number of facilities in the South Bohemian Region. The aim of the research part of the thesis is to provide a summary of the availability of institutional care for children at an early age in the South Bohemian region and to map the needs of families in the provision of institutional care for children at an early age. The main method of research is a questionnaire survey among parents in the South Bohemian Region, which is supplemented by interviews with selected parents-respondents. KEY WORDS Family Family policy Early care Early childhood Parents