Competência socioafetiva de crianças e crenças e práticas de educadores sociais em instituições de acolhimento

Abstract

The present study aimed to analyze the affective social competence of children, the beliefs of caregivers about the development of this competence and care practices adopted by them in institutional care. The literature indicates that caregivers are important agents for the socialization of affection and emotions, often serving as a reference for children's behavior in everyday situations. In addition, the development of affective social competence begins in childhood and is considered fundamental for the social interactions that the individual will establish throughout his life. To investigate the theme presented, it was decided to split this thesis into two studies. In Study 1, 26 children, from six to eleven years old, of both sexes, participated, who were living in two institutions. One located in Petrópolis and one located in Rio de Janeiro. Two tasks were applied, inspired and developed according to the affective social competence model: Task A involved the telling of three stories, while in task B, three videos were shown. In both tasks, participants should identify emotions expressed by the protagonists, indicating an answer among those offered. In Study 2, ten caregivers participated, of both sexes, who worked with the participants of Study 1. First, the caregivers were interviewed, individually, following a script with previously structured questions, with their speeches recorded in audio. In a second step, four shots were taken, with each caregiver, lasting fifteen minutes each, at different times, using the subject-focal technique. For Study 1, appropriate responses were counted for each component. For Study 2, the interviews were transcribed in full and analyzed based on the thematic-categorical content analysis technique. For the videos, pre-defined categories were used and frequency calculations of the categories were performed. The results obtained revealed that the children indicated to seek the figure of care when exposed to conflict situations, in addition to showing difficulty in differentiating emotions from anger and sadness. However, in general, they had a high success rate. With regard to caregivers, they reported working on emotions with children through the establishment of dialogue that involved listening and guidance on affective states. However, during filming, the category with the highest number of occurrences was practices related to basic care (41% of the total), indicating that the participants were involved in more activities aimed at food, hygiene and children's clothing. It was found, in general, that even though the components of affective social competence were analyzed separately, their articulation was undisputed, as well as the importance of being interpreted “in context”. Furthermore, although social educators have reported valuing the development of the affective social competence of the children they receive, their care practices still require reflection and adjustments. It is believed that further studies in the area are necessary, as well as the realization of intervention programs that seek to work on affective aspects of children and provide caregivers with tools for their practice.