Abstract

LORENCINI, Grace Rangel Felizardo  and  PAULA, Kely Maria Pereira de. Behavioral profile of children with sickle cell anemia. Temas psicol. [online]. 2015, vol.23, n.2, pp. 269-280. ISSN 1413-389X.  http://dx.doi.org/10.9788/TP2015.2-03.

Sickle Cell Anemia is a genetic disease that, by presenting varied symptomatology, produces a series of damages throughout child's development. Considering the severity of the disease, and the pain being one of its primary symptoms, since it is continuous and of high magnitude, the goal of this study was to identify indicators of social competence and behavioral problems of children (8 to 10 years of age) from the report of 12 mothers. To that end, we used the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL) for children and adolescents between 6 and 18 years of age. The scores of "social competence" and "total problems" items reached the clinical level to 83% of children, with higher scores for "internalizing problems" (50%) and "social contact problems" (50%). On the scale related to disorders, group obtained the highest rating in the range anxiety/depression. It is concluded that, for the studied group, sickle cell anemia is a risk factor for occurrence of behavioral problems and for performance of a proper social competence, due to restrictions in the execution of activities common to other children, which limits the frequency and the quality of interaction with peers. Probably, the restrictions imposed by the disease affect the availability for playing or being alone (especially in the school context), and could lead to anxiety and depression. Further investigations are needed to extend the knowledge about the negative impact of sickle cell disease on the various areas of development, promoting specific interventions for this population.

Keywords : Behavioral problems; social competence; chronic disease; sickle cell anemia; child health.

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