Abstract
The present study evaluated the perceived quality of life of the mothers of street children and investigated the association with their history of childhood violence, the occurrence of current domestic violence, their current mental states and that of their children, and family functioning. The applied instruments were as follows: Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire, WorldSAFECore Questionnaire, Instrument for the Assessment of Quality of Life of the WHO, Global Assessment of Relational Functioning Scale, Childhood Trauma Questionnaire and a socio-demographic questionnaire. The sample of convenience consisted of 79 low-income mothers who raised their children alone, and most of whom had a positive screening for mental illness. The multiple regression analysis showed that the perception of quality of life of these women was associated with the presence of psychopathology either in themselves or their children and family dysfunction. Thus any program aimed at improving the quality of life of such mothers should consider addressing their mental problems as well as those of their children, besides offering educational and psychotherapeutic approaches to these families to improve the social environment.
Highlights
Quality of life is defined by the World Health Organization (WHO) as an “individual’s perception of their position in life in the context of the culture and value systems in which they live and in relation to their goals, expectations, standards and concerns” 1 (p. 299)
Social welfare workers approached a group of children who were selling items such as candy at traffic lights and sent them to an Non-governanmental Organization (NGO) called the Rukha Institute for a two-year assistance program called Projeto Virada
The sample consisted of 79 low-income adult women who were mostly single and heads of their families, black and brown, living in poor housing conditions and sharing a room with six people, with some houses lodging up to 14 residents
Summary
Quality of life is defined by the World Health Organization (WHO) as an “individual’s perception of their position in life in the context of the culture and value systems in which they live and in relation to their goals, expectations, standards and concerns” 1 (p. 299). The WHO proposes that when creating a scale to evaluate quality of life, a subjective, multidimensional concept should be employed that includes both positive and negative elements of evaluation and inserts the subjectivity of the construct into the cultural, social and environmental context [1,2]. According to a review carried out in 2009, only 17 articles were focused on mothers’ health related to quality of life and included some physical and emotional evaluations, while there were no publications in relation to the quality of life of mothers in the general population. After this period nothing else was added. Limited knowledge does not make this issue less relevant, since the quality of their lives begins to influence their abilities to develop internal resources to take care of themselves and their families [3,4]
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