Negligence cases against children and adolescents in Brazil: impact on family interactions and mapping of the social support network

Introduction: Social support is extremely important, especially in families at risk, as it provides resources that enable coping strategies to succeed. An important element in the care service network is the Guardianship... [ view full abstract ]

Introduction: Social support is extremely important, especially in families at risk, as it provides resources that enable coping strategies to succeed. An important element in the care service network is the Guardianship Council (GC), which operates against the violation of children and adolescents’ rights. One of the most common complaints received by GC is neglect, which has also been the main reason for placing children in foster care in Brazil. Objective: Identify proximal processes of children and family reported to the GC because of neglect, assessing the impacts of the implementation of the protection measure in children's lives and identifying who was part of the network support for children and their families. Method: Data collection was based on interviews with children, adolescents and families delated to GC by neglect, with foster care professionals, and using the Map of the Five Fields with children and adolescents. The analysis was based on Bardin Content Analysis and propositions of the Bioecological Theory of Human Development by Bronfenbrenner. Results: The study found weakness in all proximal processes established between the children and caregiver before the protection measure, with a predominance of physical neglect practiced for lack of supervision. It was found that personal characteristics and contextual can both strengthen family bonds and promote support to prevent the application of protective measure, and may hinder the establishment of proximal processes and weaken coping strategies for overcoming adversity. Conclusion: Proximal processes established in the family microsystem can be weakened by personal and macrosystem characteristics, and together with poor meso and exossistemics relations, can lead to neglect practices and the resulting withdrawal of children and adolescents from family. The impacts of protection measure removal for foster care have resulted in bigger changes in children’s lives than for those who were separated for extended family.