This research was regarding family functioning and ways of dealing with low income family children from a public school in the city of Recife. The sample consisted of 100 people of both sexes (parents and children caretakers) from 25 to 55 years of age. The instrument used was the Genogram Interview and Family Drawing with Story Telling. The results show that there are many types of family arrangements for taking care of these children, being the most common, the nuclear one. As for the family functioning, the great majority follows the female leadership due to the fragile role played by the male figure, who is frequently associated to unemployment and addiction to drugs.
family; family arrangement; child care