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Journal of Human Growth and Development

Print version ISSN 0104-1282On-line version ISSN 2175-3598

Rev. bras. crescimento desenvolv. hum. vol.15 no.3 São Paulo Dec. 2005

 

EDITORIAL

 

 

We are concluding the 15th year of our journal RBCDH with great satisfaction. On the one hand, because we have been receiving more and more contributions, coming from different regions of Brazil, written by authors affiliated to several different institutions, with a significant proportion of articles deriving from Master's theses and Doctoral dissertations, and with the participation of scientific initiation grantees. On the other hand, because the improvement in the journal's quality, which has always been our objective, is being recognized: we are classified as Qualis C - International in the list of journals of the Collective Health area, and we continue to be Qualis A - National in the list of the Psychology area. Furthermore, we have had enough material to maintain the publication of three issues per year, and we believe that the journal may soon become a quarterly publication.

This issue begins with a very interesting article that approaches the knowledge primiparous mothers have about child development. The mothers' higher educational and socioeconomic levels correlated significantly with greater knowledge about parenting. The next article is about a research study conducted at UFRGS (Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul), which showed a significant relation between the maternal behavior of topic sharing and self-recognition in autistic children. Another article coming from Rio Grande do Sul discusses the evolution of the concept of co-parenting and its implications for research and clinical practice, extending the mother-child dyad to the mother-father-child triad. Another interesting contribution, which had the presence of High School teachers in its authorship, approached the concepts of citizenship and democracy. High School students participated in city council sessions, learning about the municipal legislative routine. Thus, an important goal was achieved: citizenship education.

In an interesting contribution from Rio de Janeiro, Pereira and Cardoso reviewed the literature on the methodology used in studies about prematurity and family, verifying that there is a predominance of quantitative studies, analyzed by means of statistical tests of frequency distribution, chi-square, logistic regression, and covariance. However, there are also several studies that used qualitative methodologies: interviews with focus groups, life history and participant observation. The authors suggest new research studies are needed so that physicians learn the specificity of qualitative methodology in generating meaningful evidences in addition to those generated by quantitative studies. In a very original study, a team composed of health care workers from the states of São Paulo and Paraná employed the kiss as a mobilizer for buccal health education with eighth grade adolescents studying at public schools in the city of Curitiba, Paraná. They concluded that the approach was effective and the experience, satisfactory and motivating in the field of Buccal Health. An article from Brasília (one of the many based on post-graduation works) provided reflections, using ethnomethodology, on the reality of children who live in orphanages, aiming to understand the role of the caretaker in this context. The conclusion was that the social mothers' qualification is the most important aspect regarding the offer of adequate care to children in this situation.

A qualitative and exploratory study involving researchers from the states of Bahia and São Paulo investigated women's resilience in a popular neighborhood of the city of Salvador. The study showed the existence of a "resilience of survival", based on the women's performance, in which the difficulties became the means for their success as people. Finally, another interesting study from Rio Grande do Sul approached the first situations of mother-infant separation (in the beginning, I used to leave with a broken heart...). Despite the mothers' worries concerning separation situations, they also reported feeling secure when they had reliable support.

As you can see, all the articles, which approached different themes, brought an important contribution to our major subject, the growth and development of the human being. We are sure we will receive many other contributions as good as the ones selected for this issue, thus strengthening even more this democratic vehicle of scientific dissemination - RBCDH.

 

Arnaldo Augusto Franco de Siqueira
Editor

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