Vivências da paternidade em homens que são pais de um filho com diagnóstico de autismo

• Ano de defesa: 2010
• Autor(a) principal: Smeha, Luciane Najar
• Orientador(a): Nunes, Maria Lúcia Tiellet
• Tipo de documento: Tese
• Tipo de acesso: Acesso aberto
• Idioma: por
• Instituição de defesa: Pontifícia Universidade Católica do Rio Grande do Sul; Porto Alegre
• Palavras-chave em Português: PSICOLOGIA; PSICOLOGIA DO HOMEM; PAIS E FILHOS; AUTISMO INFANTIL; PATERNIDADE - ASPECTOS PSICOLÓGICOS
• Link de acesso: http://hdl.handle.net/10923/4874

This thesis deals with fatherhood in men who have a child diagnosed with autism. The study is composed of three articles. The first was written in the model of an essay theme and discusses, with support in psychoanalysis, the complexity of parenting a child with disabilities in contemporary society. After there are two empirical articles produced with the intention of presenting and discussing the results of a qualitative study, whose general objective was to understand the paternal experiences of men who are parents of a child diagnosed with autism. They were collected from a biopsychosocial understanding, in which we have tried to dialogue with the authors of the psychoanalytic and systemic approaches, in order to understand the many variables involved in phenomenon studied, avoiding reductionism. Study participants were 11 parents who were interviewed with semi-structured interviews. The answers were examined through qualitative content analysis of Bardin (1977). The results, presented in the first empirical paper revealed that the paternity of a child with autism is a complex and challenging experience. The impact of the diagnosis of autism in the lives of parents is intense, they point the desire to be a better father than their fathers, but on the other hand, feel difficulty in exercising the paternity of the child who presents requirements derived from the specific clinical presentation in autism. The feelings frequently are related to a deep sense of powerlessness, overload of responsibilities, loneliness, sadness, and fear of dying and leaving the child helpless as to the needs of care, affection and material resources. Parents stand out as important for the pursuit of parenthood, the need to be patient, information and financial resources.Among the factors that complicate the paternity of this child, parents indicated the more regressive symptoms and, in particular the commitment in the ability to interact social as well as the lack of suitable institutions and little family support. The data presented in the second empirical paper, show that the confirmation of the diagnosis of autism in the child determines changes and losses in social, marital and professional life. Parents attributed the damages, in the three studied dimensions, to the frailty or lack of social support, which also can be related to the expansion of the feelings of loneliness and powerlessness.