FAMILY´S SOCIAL SUPPORT NETWORK AND THE PROMOTION OF CHILD DEVELOPMENT

Abstract

The aim of this study was to describe the family perception about bonds, network and social support interms of care and promotion of child development of children smaller than five years old. Seven familiesin social vulnerability, linked to the health system of Distrito Federal, Brazil, were interviewed. It is aqualitative descriptive study, structured on the Systemic Social Network Theory. Narrative analysisoccurred by using the qualitative thematic content analysis. The results were categorized into twothemes: “family social network” and “bonds and social support: family perception”. The social networkused is minimal, with density of relations between mother, child and grandmother, under the financialsupport from the father. There is proximity of housing to the health service, but cultural dissonance inrelations with its employees. Health professionals need to integrate in their caring practice the microsocial and the macro social context of families as determinants of health and child developmental conditions.

Descriptors: Family; Child development; Social support; Social vulnerability.