The institutions that shelter children and adolescents who were kept away from the family came to be functionally regulated by law from the 90's in Brazil. This led to reformulations in the formation of professional teams that worked in them, confirming the practice of the profession of social mothers and fathers. In this context the objective of this study is to examine the practices developed by social parents in children and adolescents' care institutions enlightened by public policies for social development and studies in national database. There were a limited number of publications related to practices of social parents. This finding raises the importance of studies on the impact of social parents'activities in psychosocial development of institutionalized children and adolescents.
children; adolescents; social parents; institutions for shelter
