Abstract

MORAES, Elissa Orlandi  and  ENUMO, Sônia Regina Fiorim. Coping to hospitalization in children assessed by IT-based instrument. PsicoUSF [online]. 2008, vol.13, n.2, pp. 221-231. ISSN 1413-8271.

Child hospitalization may cause psychological problems, such as depression and stress. Thus, it is important to identify the coping strategies utilized by children. This research has analyzed hospitalization coping strategies by 28 hospitalized children around 5 to 20 days in a public hospital in Brazil Southeast. Their mothers answered the Child Behavior Checklist (CBCL 6-18 years old) in addition to data from children's daily life. These children answered, individually, the Computer Assessment Instrument of Coping to Hospitalization (AEHcomp), made of 20 facilitating and non-facilitating scenes, which allow identify 13 coping strategies. AEHcomp recorded more facilitating answers to hospitalization (58.8%). Among 10 identified coping strategies, rumination (22%) and distraction (15.5%) have occurred the most times. There were no correlations between behavior problems prior to the hospitalization and non-facilitating behaviors, but these were correlated inversely to age and directly to daily life changes. This evaluation can provide resources for preventive interventions in emotional damages caused by hospitalization.

Keywords : Coping; IT-based psychological assessment; Child hospitalization.

        · abstract in Portuguese     · text in Portuguese     · Portuguese ( pdf )