EDITORIAL

Volume 16 of R.B.C.D.H., a journal that is in its full adolescence, manifests its development towards maturity counting on the efforts of some people and on the participation of many. We are grateful to all of them, because human richness comes precisely from heterogeneity and solidarity.

Research publication is R.B.C.D.H.'s prime mission, as it characterizes the last stage of the study: to disseminate Knowledge, obtained through new facets, new approaches, making it available to the academic community.

We would like to suggest that the Universities and, more specifically, their academic communities, deal with research themes that offer society a new way of understanding life, under the relational and interdisciplinary focus, prioritizing the human being and his potentialities.

The present issue provides the largest amount of articles about research studies, such as the study sent by the University of Bahia, "Understanding the Family of the Physically Disabled Child", in which, based on a review of the literature and on empirical data, the authors analyzed how families restructure themselves after giving birth to a child who is physically disabled due to Chronic Childhood Encephalopathy. From the University of Santa Catarina we received the text about a research study whose objective was to characterize schoolchildren's play behavior in a toy library. The study shows the preference of boys and girls for playing with different toys.

The contribution of the University of Pará was significant, with an article about a descriptive study of complaints identified in children and teenagers assisted by a Pediatric Psychology service of a university hospital.

The study on the meanings of maternity to high-risk pregnant women with valvar heart disease and diabetes, a contribution from the University of São Paulo, reveals important data for health policies, as well as an adequate qualitative research methodology. The article "Social Support and the Experience of Maternity" is not a research study, but rather a bibliographic review aiming to update the theme, a useful instrument for future research. Very opportune is the article about the research that characterizes the use of the cup feeding technique at the neonatal intensive care unit of a public hospital of Porto Alegre.

Finally, the text "History of the body: main axes of research on history of health (France, 1970-2000)", by Prof. Dr. Jean-Pierre Goubert, from the École Pratique dês Hauts Etudes, refers to a lecture he gave at the Nursing School of the Catholic University of Salvador, Bahia. It is an article that describes how research on health in France has been marked by four directions, presenting the state-of-the-art in each one of these four directions.

We are sure that you will like this issue and the subjects and new information it contains; thus, we, trying hard to offer useful publications, and you, participating enthusiastically, will make R.B.C.D.H. grow and develop.

Maria Apparecida Motta
Editora Associada