O envolvimento do padrasto nos cuidados e educação de seu/sua enteado/a: estudo de casos múltiplos no contexto de classe média de Salvador/Ba

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to evaluate the involvement of the stepfather in the care and education of his stepchildren ,agedbeteween six and 10 years, in middle-class context at Salvador. To achieve it, a qualitative survey was made, more specifically, a multiple case study. Four stepfathers of stepchildren aged beteween six and ten years old, were interviewed.They´ve lived in Salvador, they´ve belonged to middle class and had higher levels of education and got at least two years of conjugal union with the stepchildren´s mother. It was prepared an interview script with open questions. Data were analyzed descriptively for data collection. The study was approved by the Research Ethics Committee of UCSal and the participants signed a consent term. The main findings were: as a result, it was found that mostly mothers and the stepfathers were assigned the responsibility to educate, care for and give affection to children. In the studied cases, the costs were for responsability of the mother and stepfather together or the biological father of the children; the stepfathers interact with his stepchildren, specially on weekends and at night. According to the interviewees, who are available to meet the needs of stepchildren are basically: they (stepparents) and children´s mothers. All stepparents are considered available for the stepchildren, except when they have work obligations, in this conditions they ask for help to the extended family (maternal grandmothers, godmothers, cousins) or, in some cases, the stepchildren´s biological father. The relationship of the stepfather and his stepchildren, in all cases studied happens in a positive way, with a high involvement between them in terms of interaction and availability. However, it´s worthy mentioning that be stepfather is to be a father without being, as described by one of the interviewees. Moreover, all of them consider themselves responsible for the education and care of them stepchildren; there is a distinction in the stepfather and biological father role in the education and care of stepchildren, because there was low involvement of biological fathers with their children and this absence in the children lives weakened the bond between them. Therefore, stepparents analized assumed many of the functions generally attributed to biological fathers, however, they were not clear about the limits of their role.