O cuidar dos avós visto pelos netos em idade escolar

Abstract

This study takes as its focus grandparent caregivers as seen by schoolchildren, based on the Bioecological Theory of Human Development. This theory assumes the standpoint of the analysis of the person, process, context and time, by observing the interaction between the dyad adult/child. In order to understand the bonding circumstances and reciprocal positions between grandparents and grandchildren, through the eyes of grandchildren and based on the bio-socio-historical context, multiple case studies were performed in a private school with middle- and low-income students, located in the city of Salvador. The study, submitted and approved by the Committee of Ethics in Research, included six elementary school students, three female and three male, between the ages of six and nine years, along with their grandparents. From basic questions about how the grandchildren view the significance of their relationship with grandparents, and how intergenerational relations with grandparents may differ by gender as to the development of personal and social education, four procedures were performed: interviews with the grandchildren using instruments of educational perspective (circle of conversation and album of images); and analyses of the interaction between grandparents and grandchildren using psycho-pedagogic instruments (game boxes) and those of systems theory (shared game). The main results show that the meaning of grandparents varies according to the mode of co-habitation, for the full-time caring for grandchildren, the grandparents were seen as caretakers; for the systematic, as companions; and the sporadic, as pranksters. There was a difference in intergenerational relationships according to gender: In order to interact with their grandchildren, women perform activities in internal spaces with educational and electronic games, while men prefer activities that occur in external spaces, such as parlor games or football on the beach. Thus, understanding the child as a family member and as the object of care corresponds to a vision of development as molar, in which, for the children, being taking care of involves close articulation with coexistence and interaction.