Avaliação comportamental de crianças pré-escolares em programa de natação

Abstract

Studies have shown a high prevalence of mental disorders in child and adolescent population in Brazil, and in the world. Investigations on pre-school children behavior in the state of São Paulo, Brazil, have identified a 12.5 % prevalence of children with behavioral problems. Objective: to evaluate the behavioral development of pre-school children in a swimming program. Method: convenience sample longitudinal study, through quantitative-qualitative analysis, performed at a swimming school in the city of São José do Rio Preto. One parent or responsible for the participants has answered to CBCL / 1 1/2 and 5-year questionnaire, before and after the swimming program, classifying the children as having "clinical" or "non-clinical" problems. A p < 0. 05 significance has been used for data analysis. Results: comparing results before and after the program, children have shown a significant improvement in 6 syndromes out of the 15 assessed by CBCL. A little significant improvement has been observed in the kids’ general behavior, and, considering gender, girls have presented a slightly more important improvement than boys. Conclusion: after the proposed swimming program, the descriptive analysis has shown significant improvement in the children’s behavior compared to the statistical analysis.