Programa act de prevenção à violência: implementação e evidências de efetividade em amostra carcerária feminina do Estado do Paraná

Abstract

Violence can be said to be one of the most important contemporary issues. It is not only responsible for immediate consequences to an individual, but also outcomes that last throughout life. These outcomes affect cognitive, emotional and behavioral functions, on one’s way of acting in the world. Moreover, important social implications can be observed, such as increased number of incarceration, future relations based on violence and premature death. It is widely accepted that the sooner an individual is exposed to violence, the more serious are the consequences that derive from it. However, violence prevention is both possible and necessary. One strategy to achieve this goal is the implementation of programs intended for that purpose. This work aimed verifying whether or not ACT-Raising Safe Kids curriculum, a universal violence prevention program, was feasible with incarcerated mothers. This research complied two studies conducted in feminine prisons. The first one was implemented with a group of 8 mothers serving time in semi-open regimen. Within the first three meetings, however, all the participants were released or relocated in other institutions, which made the group to be extinct. Nonetheless, this study led to adaptations on the original program, as to be a better fit to this population. The second study was implemented in a maximum-security prison, with 23 incarcerated mothers. Amongst them, 12 completed pre and post-program evaluation protocol, consisting of 46 questions divided in 4 categories (parental style, child development, media literacy, parent’s behavior). Qualitative data analysis included the material produced during the sessions and demonstrated increase in parenting skills. Quantitative data was divided in three distinct blocks: The totality of the pre-program evaluation (n=29), the paired instruments pertaining to the program (n=12), and the comparative evaluation (n=14 – inserted by the author). The pre-program evaluation revealed mothers with good and excellent parenting skills, which disagreed with both literature in the field and the qualitative results. The paired evaluations proved 53,7% increase of answers considered excellent, 16,41% decrease in answers considered fair, and 64,2% decrease in answers considered terrible. The comparative assessment also demonstrated increase in parenting and non-violent behavior, but the percentages were considerably higher. The frequency of answers marked with concept excellent increased 2175%, those marked with concept good decreased 50%, and those marked with concept fair, bad and terrible all decreased 100%. The author concluded that not only ACTRSK in viable for feminine incarcerated population in Brazil, but it also appears promising in diminishing violence-based parenting, as long as the adaptations are verified.