BULHÕES, L. B. D. Experiências maternas frente à continência dos medos infantis [Mothers’ Coping Strategies to Deal with their Child’s Fears]. 159 p. Master’s Dissertation – Faculdade de Ciências e Letras (UNESP). Assis (SP), 2010.
Available on: https://repositorio.unesp.br/bitstream/handle/11449/97571/bulhoes_lbd_me_assis.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y
This dissertation emphasizes some mothers’ coping strategies to deal with their child’s anxieties and fears. Firstly, it broaches the study of children’s psychic development focusing on the anxieties aroused in the course of that very development and which have a close relationship with the fears they have felt. In the course of children’s psychic development some fears are felt expressing anxieties which are apt to be naturally overcome, by means of some symbolic devices. There are some possibilities which are offered to children which help them further the development of such devices. Among them one emphasizes in this research the importance of mothers’ coping strategies, when they try to find out in the “reverie” the possibility of meeting the most distressing demands made by the child. Besides such coping strategies, the research broaches other supporting elaborative devices such as children’s play, fairy tales, and other narrative texts which deal with the fears felt by the child. However, some of those fears are apt to evolve more evidently into other forms. It becomes evident that many children face serious difficulties in working out their fears. The research at issue was carried out to find out which are the difficulties faced by mothers when they are urged to deal with their child’s fears. Therefore, a qualitative-based study was carried out with four mothers who brought their children to the psychologist’s office within a Basic Health Service Unit to deal with their children’s unfounded fears. Semi-structured interviews were held with those mothers, in order to find out which are the difficulties faced by them while trying to overcome such fears. The outcomes produced by the research pointed out that when mothers identify themselves with the fears their children are feeling, such a process leads to primitive childhood conflicts and such factors may render mothers’ attempts more difficult.