O autoconceito e as interações sociais de alunos com cegueira

Abstract

Self-concept and social interactions in blindness have been the subject of few studies over the years. The experience of approaching self-concept and social interactions in blindness is an attempt to clarify the building process of a social group that still lacks recognition. Thus, this research aims to assess how blindness affects the self-concept of children/young people, to verify how they establish their social relationships and to find out the level of acceptance by their peer group by checking the number of times the student with blindness is preferred and rejected, decoding their sociometric status and linking self-concept to popularity. The sample consists of 6 students with blindness, aged between 14 and 18, attending the 8th, 10th and 11th years in public schools from the center of the country. To achieve these goals, we have applied two instruments: Piers-Harris Children´s Self-Concept Scale (portuguese version) and a sociometric test given to students in classes where students with blindness are included, as well as to the blind ones. It is concluded that the test sample shows a normal average for both factors of self-concept. After the different statuses have been analyzed and identified, it turns out that 4 students belong to the neglected status and two students present the rejected status. Based on the results obtained, it is confirmed that students with blindness have clear and evident perception of who is popular and dismissed in their peer group, despite belonging to groups with lower visibility. Regarding the competence perceived by students with blindness, the results indicate that the level of acceptance by the peer group seems to have no influence on the different factors of self-concept.

Date of Award	21 Jun 2016
Original language	Portuguese
Awarding Institution	Universidade Católica Portuguesa
Supervisor	Célia Ribeiro (Supervisor) & Cristina Simões (Co-Supervisor)