Filhos como pérolas preciosas

: avaliação de necessidades no domínio da formação para pais: perceção dos casais intervenientes e desenho de programa formativo em contexto pastoral

Abstract

Training programs for parents have benefits for children’s education, empowering parents, giving them confidence as the first educators of their children, preventing behavioral situations and improving family relationships. Despite this, tools like these programs, which reflect the faith and expectations of couples, are still lacking in pastoral training for parents. This dissertation, a pioneer in this field in Portugal, aimed to design a training program, in pastoral context, for parents with children in their first and second childhoods (from 0 to 6 years old): Children as Precious Pearls. A survey was carried out of scientifically validated training programs, of programs/projects taught in catholic and evangelical christian contexts, and of catechesis modalities in a family context. This dissertation is based on a cross-sectional, non-experimental, qualitative study, which sought to understand the representations of engaged couples and married couples with at least one child aged 6 years old about motherhood and fatherhood, and the parenting training needs they perceived as relevant in their children's first and second childhoods. We interviewed 11 engaged couples and 14 married couples with children from different dioceses across the country (north, central, south, islands and the armed forces and security forces). In addition to the training needs perceived as relevant, which confirm the data in the literature, the couples interviewed considered the transmission of faith to be a training need. At the end, we present a design for a training program for parents with children in their first and second childhoods (from 0 to 6 years old), made up of two training cycles and a mini-cycle, which is optional to attend, on themes of sexuality and bioethics, themes that are intrinsically linked to the family and which permeate many of the documents of the Magisterium of the Catholic Church in recent decades.

Date of Award	29 Nov 2024
Original language	Portuguese
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Susana Costa Ramalho (Supervisor) & João Manuel Duque (Co-Supervisor)