O impacto de uma situação potencialmente traumática na relação de cuidados, sob a perspectiva da teoria do apego

Abstract

The relationship of care in early childhood is considered one of the most important aspect on the child’s physical and emotional development. The conditions under which this relationship occurs profoundly influence the child's construction of himself and the way he relates to the world around him. Adverse events such as violence, accidents, disasters, when perceived as a threat to life or physical integrity, impact not only the child who has experienced such a situation but also those who take care of her. This paper aims to understand the impact of a potentially traumatic situation on the care relationship, through the experience of the primary caregiver of a child up to twelve years of age who has experienced unintentional injury. The epistemology used was the Theory of Attachment developed by John Bowlby. It is a multiple case study with semi-structured interview to address the caregiver's experience. Three mothers of children between two and ten years of age participated in this qualitative study. From the result of the interviews the following categories of meanings were constructed: construction of the behavior of caring, which contemplated the internalized mother, the idealized mother and the possible mother; reactions and feelings at the moment and soon after the incident with the child; post-traumatic reactions; need to provide protection; balance between the various systems; the child's reactions to the event; new homeostasis among then. The changes regarding the caregiver system were related to certain factors such as: the previous emotional structure of the mother; the characteristics of the event; the perception of danger; and self-perception as a mother. The possible consequences for children's emotional development were also discussed. It was pointed out the necessity of new researches that approach this subject