Coparenting in caregivers of children with cerebral palsy

Abstract

The Brazilian Association of Cerebral Palsy defines Cerebral Palsy (CP) as a group of disorders of development and posture, which cause limitations in an individual activity. The birth of a child with CP generates an impact, which brings a new reality for the family, mainly parents and others caregivers. The goal of the present work was to describe coparenting relationships in parents of children with CP, comparing between main and secondary caregivers, and still, the relationship between coparenting pair. Data was obtained from 12 coparenting pairs (24 individuals) caregivers of children with CP. Were used the instruments: Coparenting Questionnaire (COPQ), to evaluate the coparenting relationships, Socio Demographic Inventory (SDI), to describe information about the main and secondary caregivers and the Gross Motor Function Classification System (GMFCS) for to measure the children’s gross motor function. The data was treated through the software SPSS (version 20.0), the statistic calculated was frequency, descriptive, and still, a parameter of scores was fixed for the classification of coparentality factors (cooperation, triangulation and conflict). The results indicated that secondary caregivers exhibited higher average in the factors of analysis of cooperation and triangulation (21 and 5,2). The mainly caregivers indicated the bigger average in conflict factor, (11, 3). In general, the coparenting pairs exhibited high cooperation (19-25 points), high triangulation (4-8 points) and low conflict (5-11 points). The establishment of a good coparenting relationship, expressed in the mutual support and commitment of the dyads is fundamental for the family functioning and for the child’s global welfare.