Comportamentos perturbados de vinculação em crianças em acolhimento institucional : contribuição das características da criança e dos cuidados

Dissertação de mestrado integrado em Psicologia (área de especialização em Psicologia Clínica)Os estudos têm revelado, com frequência, a manifestação de comportamentos perturbados de vinculação por crianças institucionalizadas. Ao mesmo tempo, têm apontado diversos riscos associados a estas crianças que justificam a procura sistemática de entendimento deste fenómeno. Neste âmbito, há variáveis que carecem de estudo e outras que despoletam controvérsia no que concerne ao seu papel na explicação das formas atípicas de vinculação. Assim, definiu-se como objetivo principal desta investigação a procura de fatores etiológicos dos comportamentos perturbados de vinculação, com destaque para a contribuição das caraterísticas da crianças e dos cuidados. Para tal, recorreu-se a uma amostra de 60 crianças portuguesas, em idade pré-escolar, que vivem em meio institucional e respetivas cuidadoras. Para classificação da qualidade do vínculo entre ambas, os técnicos institucionais responderam ao Questionário de Identificação do Cuidador, sendo esta informação averiguada e validada, de seguida, pelos investigadores com base em observações naturalísticas. Utilizou-se, também, a Disturbances of Attachment Interview (Smyke & Zeanah, 1999) para a exploração da presença de sinais de comportamentos perturbados de vinculação na criança. As cuidadoras, para além de responderem a esta entrevista, preenchiam o Children’s Behavior Questionnaire (Rothbart, 2000) para avaliação do temperamento da criança e o Questionário ao Prestador de Cuidados que permitiu conhecer caraterísticas relativas aos cuidados e crenças das cuidadoras. Uma tarefa semi-estruturada (Soares et al., 2010) permitiu averiguar a qualidade da interação da cuidadora com a criança. Os resultados revelaram que as crianças que têm cuidador preferido apresentam menos comportamentos inibidos. Estes comportamentos também se associaram negativa e marginalmente à sensibilidade da cuidadora e à dimensão do temperamento controlo por esforço. Os comportamentos desinibidos encontraram-se negativamente associados à sensibilidade e negativa e marginalmente correlacionados com o número de dias de trabalho por semana da cuidadora. Ademais, menor afetividade negativa e maior extroversão associaram-se a menos comportamentos do tipo desinibido. Verificou-se, ainda, que as crianças do sexo masculino manifestavam mais distorções de base segura do que as do sexo feminino. Estas formas atípicas de vinculação encontraram-se marginalmente correlacionadas com a idade das crianças na avaliação, e significativamente relacionadas com o rácio e negativamente associadas à sensibilidade da cuidadora. A sensibilidade da cuidadora mostrou-se correlacionada com algumas das suas crenças, mas não com o temperamento da criança. Os resultados sugerem que os comportamentos perturbados de vinculação têm diferentes fatores etiológicos que envolvem caraterísticas dos cuidados e da criança.Studies frequently reveal the manifestation of attachment disordered behaviors by institutionalized children. At the same time, they have been described many risks associated with these children that justify the systematic search for the understanding of this phenomenon. In this context, there are variables that require study and others that, concerning its role on explaining the atypical forms of attachment, are controversial. So, the main purpose of this investigation was to search the etiologic factors of attachment disordered behaviors, highlighting the characteristics of children and care’s contribution. To achieve it, we used a sample of 60 Portuguese children in preschool age, who live in institutions and respective caregivers. To classify the quality of the bond between them, the institutional technicians responded to the Identification Caregiver Questionnaire, and then, this information was investigated and validated by researchers based on naturalistic observations. We also used the Disturbances of Attachment Interview (Smyke & Zeanah, 1999) to explore the signs of attachment disordered behaviors in the child. The caregivers, in addition of responding to this interview, also answered the Children's Behavior Questionnaire (Rothbart, 2000) to assess the child's temperament and the Caregiver Questionnaire, providing knowledge concerning the characteristics of the care and caregivers’ beliefs. An interactive task (Soares et al., 2010) allowed the access to the quality of close care. The results revealed that children who have preferred a certain caregiver presented less inhibited behaviors. These behaviors were also negative and marginally associated to the caregiver’s sensitivity and the dimension of behavior effortful control. Disinhibited behaviors were negatively associated with the sensitivity, and negative and marginally correlated with the number of working days per week of the caregiver. Furthermore, smaller negative affectivity and higher extraversion were associated with less disinhibited behavior type. It was also found that male children manifested more secure base distortions than the female. These atypical forms of attachment were found positive and marginally correlated in the evaluation with the age of children, positively and significantly related to the ratio and negatively associated with caregiver’s sensitivity. The sensitivity of the caregiver was significantly correlated with some of their beliefs, but not with the child's temperament. The results suggest that attachment disordered behaviors have different etiological factors related to characteristics of the child and of the institutional care.Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) - Bolsa de Investigação PTDC/PSIPCL/ 101506/2008; P.I.: Isabel Soare

Characterisation of microbial attack on archaeological bone

As part of an EU funded project to investigate the factors influencing bone preservation in the archaeological record, more than 250 bones from 41 archaeological sites in five countries spanning four climatic regions were studied for diagenetic alteration. Sites were selected to cover a range of environmental conditions and archaeological contexts. Microscopic and physical (mercury intrusion porosimetry) analyses of these bones revealed that the majority (68%) had suffered microbial attack. Furthermore, significant differences were found between animal and human bone in both the state of preservation and the type of microbial attack present. These differences in preservation might result from differences in early taphonomy of the bones. © 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved

NEOTROPICAL CARNIVORES: a data set on carnivore distribution in the Neotropics

Mammalian carnivores are considered a key group in maintaining ecological health and can indicate potential ecological integrity in landscapes where they occur. Carnivores also hold high conservation value and their habitat requirements can guide management and conservation plans. The order Carnivora has 84 species from 8 families in the Neotropical region: Canidae; Felidae; Mephitidae; Mustelidae; Otariidae; Phocidae; Procyonidae; and Ursidae. Herein, we include published and unpublished data on native terrestrial Neotropical carnivores (Canidae; Felidae; Mephitidae; Mustelidae; Procyonidae; and Ursidae). NEOTROPICAL CARNIVORES is a publicly available data set that includes 99,605 data entries from 35,511 unique georeferenced coordinates. Detection/non-detection and quantitative data were obtained from 1818 to 2018 by researchers, governmental agencies, non-governmental organizations, and private consultants. Data were collected using several methods including camera trapping, museum collections, roadkill, line transect, and opportunistic records. Literature (peer-reviewed and grey literature) from Portuguese, Spanish and English were incorporated in this compilation. Most of the data set consists of detection data entries (n = 79,343; 79.7%) but also includes non-detection data (n = 20,262; 20.3%). Of those, 43.3% also include count data (n = 43,151). The information available in NEOTROPICAL CARNIVORES will contribute to macroecological, ecological, and conservation questions in multiple spatio-temporal perspectives. As carnivores play key roles in trophic interactions, a better understanding of their distribution and habitat requirements are essential to establish conservation management plans and safeguard the future ecological health of Neotropical ecosystems. Our data paper, combined with other large-scale data sets, has great potential to clarify species distribution and related ecological processes within the Neotropics. There are no copyright restrictions and no restriction for using data from this data paper, as long as the data paper is cited as the source of the information used. We also request that users inform us of how they intend to use the data