Estresse infantil um estudo explorátorio com pré-escolares

Abstract

This research presents an investigation about the stress in preschoolers. Aiming to identify the main symptoms of the stress in childhood, the main factors that cause their stress and the confront strategies that they use. With this purpose, we studied 6 cases of preschoolers (aged between 5 and 6) of a public school in Uberlandia, MG. Not only children took part of this study, but their mother and teachers. To obtain data to this research was used the Child Stress Scale and the Ludic Interview with the preschoolers while their mother and teachers answered a structuralized interview. The results revealed the presence of significant symptoms of stress in the studied samples, mostly in a psychological level. We could identify a great number of stress sources, mainly related to the familiar interaction, classmate interactions and even related to their own believes and feelings, as well as other sources related to the daily routine and the interaction with the teacher, characteristics of the schools and meaningful situations faced during the previous year. Besides, it made possible to know which are the confront strategies that children mostly likely use, expressed by the inaction, emotional expressions, by the seeking of social support not excluding the direct action and the aggressive action as ways to express themselves.