Algunas reflexiones acerca de los menores carenciados y sus familias. Sorne reflections on children in need and their families

Abstract

In this article we seek to reflect on the complexity involved in psychosocial intervention with unprotected children and adolescents or those as risk of becoming so. A description of what it means to be unprotected is then related to the impossibility of becoming a sufficiently autonomous adult because of the lack of any adult capable of sustaining a parental role during the necessary time period The hypothesis is made that a transgenerational reproduction of deficiencies occurs, that is, today’s unprotected children are children of unprotected minors who are now adults only in chronological terms. The most common kind of breakdowns in the exercise of the parental function which lead to the development of unprotected minors are analysed There is a reflection about the psychosocial characteristics that these children develop as a means of coping. Finally at least two lines of necessary intervention are outlined as are the aspects which make the development of this task difficult.