O ambiente familiar e o desenvolvimento das funções executivas: estudo correlacional com crianças de 3 a 6 anos

• Autor(a) principal: Martins, Gabriela Lamarca Luxo
• Data de Publicação: 2014
• Tipo de documento: Dissertação
• Idioma: por
• Título da fonte: Biblioteca Digital de Teses e Dissertações do Mackenzie
• Texto Completo: http://dspace.mackenzie.br/handle/10899/22555
• topic: relações familiares; modelos educacionais; função executiva; pré-escolar; avaliação; neuropsicologia; family relations; educational models; executive function; preschool child; evaluation; neuropsychology; CNPQ::CIENCIAS HUMANAS::PSICOLOGIA

Family dynamics and parent-child relationships represent the essence of the childhood environment, and play an especially important role in the first years of life. These factors also lay down the foundation for childhood cognitive development, and have a significant influence on executive functions, which are responsible for the planning, initiation, execution and monitoring of goal-directed behaviors or adjustments to environmental demands. Research has shown that environmental features and parental educational investment are strongly associated with executive functioning in childhood. Therefore, the goals of this study were to: (1) assess the precision of two methods of assessing the family environment (questionnaire and home visit) as well as the correlation between them, and (2) evaluate the relationship between family environment, parental educational practices and executive functions in preschool children. The sample comprised 30 children and their legal guardians. Children were aged between 3 and 6 years and included both boys and girls attending kindergarten and preschool at a private school in the city of São Paulo. Family environment was assessed using the Parental Style Inventory (PSI) and two forms of the Home Observation for Measurement of the Environment (HOME). Executive functions were assessed using a Cancellation Test, a semantic Stroop Task and the Trail Making Test for preschoolers. The Cronbach s alpha values of the two versions of the HOME instrument were calculated, and the questionnaire was found to have a higher internal consistency than the home visit. A non-parametric Spearman test also revealed the presence of positive correlations between some of the items in the two instruments. As for the second goal, PSI scores displayed low to moderate correlations with measures of executive functioning, and appropriate parental styles were found to be associated with improved interference control in children. The HOME questionnaire displayed low to moderate correlations with Semantic Stroop Test scores, while language stimulation and the presence of learning materials in the home were positively associated with executive functioning development. Home visit scores were also highly correlated with executive performance. Some unexpected results were found, such as an association between increased parental modeling and greater reaction times in measures of interference control. Additionally, the emotional and verbal responsivity of the caretaker was associated with worse alternating attention. In conclusion, significant correlations were found between family environment, parental styles and executive functions. These results suggest the importance of intervention programs designed to help parents promote their children s executive development in the home.