O exercício da parentalidade em participantes do “círculo de debates da escola de pais do Brasil” no Rio Grande do Sul

Abstract

The uncertainty about educational guidelines has been growing among parents and caregivers of children. Providing spaces for discussion about these uncertainties, as well as providing opportunities for sharing experiences and building shared strategies in the field of education/family care, is one way to ease these doubts and support the exercise of parenting. The Parents School of Brazil (EPB) is a voluntary, nonprofit association of philanthropic and educational character, of reference in matters of education and family relationship. The Circle of Debates is a work of parental education of preventive character and developed in seven meetings. This research aimed to draw a profile of the parents/guardians who participated in the Debates Circles of the EPB in Rio Grande do Sul and to identify aspects related to the exercise of their parenting before and after participation in the meetings that make up the Circle in the first half of 2018. The design was mixed, from a perspective of integration of analysis between quantitative and qualitative data. The qualitative step was observational, descriptive, and consisted of the observational follow - up of a cycle of Debates Circle of the EPB, in a city of the State of Rio Grande do Sul, with registration in a field diary. A thematic content analysis was carried out in which three main mutually exclusive categories were created: prevention, the daily life of parents/mothers and values and limits in education, and a cross-cutting category: psychoeducation. The quantitative phase was a quasi-experimental study, in which instruments were applied to identify the perception of social and community support, types of parental practices, perception of children's abilities and difficulties and levels of parental stress, before (T1) and then (T2) of the parents' participation in the EPB Discussion Circle, in five RS cities. Data were analyzed through SPSS. Descriptive analyses were performed initially, followed by an analysis of the effects of demographic data on T1 and analyses of repeated measures comparing T1 and T2. The results showed significant effects of the demographic in T1, mainly related to the city, schooling, and gender of the parents. Concerning the comparison between T1 and T2, significant effects on community participation (QASC) were observed, increasing in T2, as well as in the Engagement with Discipline (IPP) Axis, increasing in T2, and emotional symptoms, behavioral problems and (SDQ), decrease in T2. Thus, from the analyzes, it can be inferred that the work developed in the EPB Debating Circle has a positive impact on the exercise of parenting, especially with regard to social and community support, becoming an important space for exchanging experiences, a better understanding of children's abilities and difficulties, and a change in the way they discipline their children, making them more positive.