Quality of life of mothers whose children work on the streets of São Paulo, Brazil

Abstract

The present study evaluated the perceived quality of life of the mothers of street children and investigated the association with their history of childhood violence, the occurrence of current domestic violence, their current mental states and that of their children, and family functioning. The applied instruments were as follows: Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire, WorldSAFECore Questionnaire, Instrument for the Assessment of Quality of Life of the WHO, Global Assessment of Relational Functioning Scale, Childhood Trauma Questionnaire and a socio-demographic questionnaire. The sample of convenience consisted of 79 low-income mothers who raised their children alone, and most of whom had a positive screening for mental illness. The multiple regression analysis showed that the perception of quality of life of these women was associated with the presence of psychopathology either in themselves or their children and family dysfunction. Thus any program aimed at improving the quality of life of such mothers should consider addressing their mental problems as well as those of their children, besides offering educational and psychotherapeutic approaches to these families to improve the social environment

Informality and employment vulnerability: application in sellers with subsistence work

“…Other studies in Brazil 11 present the perception of quality of life for cane cutters, motorcycle taxi drivers 60 , and mothers whose children work in the streets of São Paulo 12 , designating them as work with characteristics of precarious employment, whether they are contract workers or informal workers. Another study has also addressed the prevalence of mental disorders in bus drivers and ticket collectors 4 , describing that their employment also presents characteristics of precarious employment; however, it does not refer to subsistence or vulnerable jobs.…”

Correlations between caregiver psychiatric symptoms and offspring psychopathology in a low-resource setting

“…32 We considered cutoff of 14 or more for symptomatic children, as used in previous studies in Brazil. 33 We divided children into three groups: (1) asymptomatic (SDQ <14 and impact supplement score =0); (2) symptomatic without impact (SDQ ≥14 and impact supplement score ≥0) and (3) symptomatic with impact (SDQ ≥14 and impact supplement score =1).…”