Abstract
During the school years, family and school are contexts in which risk and protection mechanisms for favorable or unfavorable trajectories regarding the development of children are engendered. Early adaptive disabilities, expressed in high levels of emotional and/or behavior problems, have been associated with unfavorable trajectories. The present study aimed to test a prediction model of behavior problems in schoolchildren, having as variable support predictors to the development and adversity in family contexts, as well as the existence of school complaints, indicating adversity in the school context. Sixty children aged 7 to 11 years and their mothers participated in this study and they were recruited in a public elementary school and in a university clinic of psychology. The instruments used in this study were: Raven's Coloured Progressive Matrices - Special Scale, Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL), Family Environment Resources Inventory (Recursos do Ambiente Familiar - RAF), Family Life subscale from the Adverse Events Scale (Escala de Eventos Adversos - EEA). Data collection took place at the clinic and school. The data were analyzed by means of multiple linear regression, verifying the power of prediction of behavioral outcomes considering the environment variables. The results indicated school adversity as the main predictor of attention problems, social problems and aggressive behavior. Family adversity was associated with internalizing and externalizing behaviors. Two modalities of family support (daily regular routine and leisure activities in free time) seemed to prevent behavior problems. These are home resources amenable to intervention.
Keywords:
behavior problems; learning disabilities; family support.
