Educadores de abrigo: seu trabalho e a criança institucionalizada Rev Bras Crescimento Desenvolvimento Hum. 2011; 21( Palavras-chave: criança; abrigo. ABSTRACT:The aim of this article is to study the perception of shelter care educators regarding the work performed by them as well as their effect on the institutionalized children under their care. Questionnaires were administered to 102 educators working in the largest shelter care facility in Belem during the period from 2004 to 2006. The results indicated that in the educator's view, in general service was satisfactory, and whereas basic physical needs were being met, provisions for affective and intellectual growth were not adequate. In particular, children in these facilities had little privacy, nor were they afforded sufficient individual attention. Furthermore, the educator's work appeared to exert minimal influence on the children's cognitive and emotional development. Such information may be useful for formulating more effective pedagogical policies, emphasizing a more integrated link between child care and education.

This study analyzed 742 events involving caretaking behavior among sheltered children with or without siblings in the same institution. Statistical tests were used for intergroup evaluation in comparison to focal subjects. Children with siblings showed a greater number of those behaviors and they were primarily directed to non-sibling peers (roommates) or adults (caretakers). The study also revealed that the caretaking behavior was more frequent in the group of children with siblings in the institution whereas those without siblings showed a more affective contact and behaviors directed more to adults than to peers. It was concluded that the caretaking behavior is present among siblings, but it assumes particular shapes because of the complex social dynamics that characterize the research environment. Keywords: Prosocial behavior, sheltered children, siblings. ResumoEste estudo analisou 742 eventos envolvendo comportamento de cuidado entre crianças abrigadas com e sem irmão na mesma instituição. Foram aplicados testes estatísticos para avaliação intergrupal na comparação entre os sujeitos focais. As crianças com irmão manifestaram a maior proporção desses comportamentos e foram dirigidos principalmente a parceiros não-Irmãos (companheiros de dormitório) ou adultos (cuidadores). O estudo revelou ainda que o comportamento Brincar de cuidar foi mais freqüente no grupo de crianças Com Irmão na instituição enquanto que entre os participantes Sem Irmão predominou Estabelecer contato afetuoso e comportamentos direcionados mais a adultos do que aos pares. Conclui-se que o comportamento de cuidado está presente entre irmãos, mas assume formas particulares em razão da complexa dinâmica social que caracteriza o ambiente pesquisado. Palavras-chave: Comportamento pró-social, crianças abrigadas, irmãos.Researches have showed that children develop according to the interactions they maintain. In this sense, the prosocial behavior has been investigated as an interaction pattern with a particular influence on the development for involving voluntary actions from which children seek to help or beneficiate another subject or social groups as Eisenberg and Musen (1989) explain. For these authors this specific shape of behavior is under the effect of some factors as: (a) the cultural group to which the child belongs; (b) the early socialization experiences, the cognitive processes, the personal variables linked to personality (sex, age, economic class origin, position in the family, and characteristics as assertiveness, sociability, and selfesteem); and (c) the social circumstances that mark its existence. Therefore, the authors cited above understand that the experiences related to social and cultural context in which the child is inserted and the factors from the immediate environment are associated to the basis of the prosocial behavior in the childhood.Studies have clearly demonstrated that the child is capable of expressing attitudes that denote care with their peers besides a true concern to their welfare when the dynami...

The aim of the research was to analyze the interaction between siblings and their peers in institutional sheltering, debating the contextual conditions of the institution. A group of siblings took part in the research, in total there were four children housed in a big institution the city of Belém, Pará. The data was collected through the record sheets and the observation of the children's interaction, making use of the socio-focal observation technique. The interactive episodes among the children were categorized into interactions that involved sharing, conflict, cooperation, competition, behavior similarity, affection and search for closeness. The results showed that the siblings spent more time and increased frequency of interacting with themselves, among the most common categories were the search for closeness, affection and cooperation. The data raise the debate about sheltering institutions, especially in regards to establishing the relationship between siblings in this kind of institution and the strategies used by them to keep their bonds.