[Analysis of quantitative information obtained in a field study of affective privation in institutionalized children under 3 years of age].
The aim of this paper is to demonstrate, with the aid of reliable numerical methods, the incidence of the variable, lack of mothering care, in an experimental group (GE) of 94 children under three years of age who had suffered, at least once, separation from mother and had lived for a while in a institution for young children. GE was compared with a control group (GC) of 79 children of similar age and socio-economic status who had never suffered separation from mother. The present paper was based on field research carried out by Julia Ferrari de Prieto in the Refugio Maternal (RM), an institution for young children located in a pediatric hospital in Buenos Aires. From the data gathered, comprising specimen observation, interviews, and results of Brunet and Lezine's Development Test for young children, the AA selected quantitative information--quotient of development (CD)--to make a computational program that proved the following: a) that GC, with a mean CD of 101.61 was really a random sample from a population of children under three years old who had received non-interrupted mothering care; b) that in all the experimental group (GET) the weight of the variable lack of mothering care was found to be very strong, and represented a development shortfall of about 20%; c) that the GET was really a non-homogeneous sample from which was set apart a small sub-group called experimental segregated group (GES) characterized by the short span spent in the RM and whose mean CD of 97.11 was comparatively high; d) that, however, GES was different from GC (Chi-squared test proved the non-dependency of GES and GC samples with a level of significance of 0.05); e) that, therefore, the variable, time when mothering care was lacking was one of very strong weight, even if the period spent in RM was a very short one (7 days for children of age over three months, and 30 days for children of age under three months, at the time of their arrival at the RM). The AA are now carring out an analysis of GES, to be published in a forthcoming paper, in view of the special characteristics of this small group.
D000367:Age Factors; D002652:Child Behavior; D002657:Child Development; D002674:Child, Institutionalized / Q000523:psychology*; D002675:Child, Preschool; D006801:Humans; D007086:Illegitimacy; D007223:Infant; D007231:Infant, Newborn; D008426:Maternal Deprivation; D012737:Sex Factors; D012919:Social Behavior; D013223:Statistics as Topic / Q000379:methods; D013997:Time Factors
Análisis de la información cuantitativa obtenida en una investigación de campo sobre privación afectiva en niños institucionalizados menores de tres años.