Social support group to mothers of children diagnosed with ADHD

Abstract

This article aims to present the analysis of the repercussions of a social support group on the educational practices of mothers of children diagnosed with Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. The assumption is that the scientific knowledge about the disorder and the sharing of the reflected practical knowledge acquired by the families of these children have great relevance in the performance of their roles as mediators of the self-regulation of their children’s behavior. It is characterized as a Intervention Research, aligned with practice studies and guided by the ontological and epistemological foundations of Cultural-Historical Psychology. The social support group moderated by the researcher was the instrument of interaction among the mothers. The content analysis was done by “core of meaning” from reports of mothers during the development process of social support group and from the semi structured interview applied before and after the end of the group’s meetings. It was verified that the social support group favored the experience of positive feelings and provided a space for the exchange of practices and knowledge. Thus, the repercussions were positive with respect to the practices and meanings attributed by the mothers to the children and to themselves, with reflexes in the performance of their roles of mediators of the behavior of their children.