Abstract

SILVA, Elisabeth Hellen Pereira da; GIRAO, Emmanuela da Rocha Cruz  and  CUNHA, Ana Cristina Barros da. Father coping face to the congenital malformation of son before and after the birth. Estud. pesqui. psicol. [online]. 2016, vol.16, n.1, pp.180-199. ISSN 1808-4281.

Every couple idealizes a healthy son, which not happened when the congenital malformation exists. Few studies consider the paternal expectations and the father´s coping face to the son malformation, the aim of this study. We investigated differences on the indicators of depression and coping in 12 parents, divided into two groups: pregnant fathers and fathers with children from 3 to 5 years old. The diagnosis of the child´s malformation occurred during the pregnancy of their wives attended in a public maternity hospital in the Rio de Janeiro city. The Questionnaire "Momento da Noticia" (Moment of diagnosis news), the Depression Inventory (BDI) of the Beck Scale, and the EMEP Scale (Ways of Coping with Problems Scale) were used. For all parents, it was found that 66.7% received the diagnosis by doctors, and considered the communication of diagnosis was positive. It was observed that 75% of parents reacted negatively, even if the repercussions of the malformation to the couple have been considered as positive by 83, 33% of parents. Negative feelings, such as sadness, were reported by all parents, even though 91.2% of the parents of both groups showed minimal signs of depression. The most prevalent way of coping by EMEP for both groups was the "Focused on the Problem", followed by "Search of religious practices". Although we did not find differences between the groups, we concluded that the malformation of the child has emotional impact on the father coping.

Keywords : father; congenital malformation; coping; depression.

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