The family is considered an essential social system in the transmission of beliefs, ideas and social meanings and has strong influence in children’s behavior. The affectionate relationships established in the family are essential for the emotional development. The low-income families have peculiarities, but generally they try to approach the current social pattern. The objective of this study was to examine the level of affection and conflict in low-income families and their relation to behavior problems in preschool children from the point of view of mothers and teachers. The participants were 59 mothers of preschool children and their teachers, who responded to instruments on affection, family conflict and child behavior problems based on the mother’s and teacher’s point of view. The data highlighted the importance of the degree of affection and conflict between the father and mother, and its relationship with the children’s development problems and that the greater the degree of conflict between the parents more behavior problems children develop, independently of the family structure.
Family; Affection; Objects relations; Conflict; Behavior disorders; Mother child relations; Lowincome; Problems of behavior; Preschool age children
