28th International Congress of Psychology August 8 ... - U-netSURF

Co-convener: X.M. Li, USA
1022.1 A community based psycho educational intervention: A program of family education in
Brazil, H. Szymanski, Pontifícia Universidade Católica de São Paulo, Brazil
Sexuality has become a most requested theme of discussion in a program of psycho educational
intervention offered to low-income neighborhood families in São Paulo, Brazil. Sexuality has been
connected to family interpersonal relations, undesired pregnancy and adolescent pregnancy. TV
has been shown as a major source of information to women who have no opportunities to talk
about their doubts, lack of satisfaction. The program offers possibility to discuss those questions
and combines collective meetings, home visits and duties. It includes schools and NGO’s involved
with educational projects. Its main objectives are the study and development of policies for family
education.
1022.2 Going from research to large scale implementation in life skills and sexuality education
programs in Mexico, M. Givaudan 1 , S. Pick 2 , 1 Mexican Institute for Research on Family and
Population, Mexico, Mexico; 2 Instituto Mexicano de Investigación de Familiay Población, Mexico
Researchers, program developers and policy designers generally work quiet independently of each
other. The research bases for the development and results of a life skills and sexuality education
program developed in Mexico will be the focus of the first part of the presentation. The groups
included are adolescents, children, teachers and parents. It will be followed by the contents,
didactic methodology and educational materials used in the program, as well as examples of
results of its different evaluations and steps taken in the areas of advocacy and dissemination to
scale it up to national level and for its transfer to other countries. The program has reached over 11
million users in Latin America through over 40,000 replicators.
1022.3 Development of youth policies in Central America: Implications for sexuality education,
D. Krauskopf, University of Costa Rica Rodrigo Facio, San José, Costa Rica
In Central America 40% of the population are children or adolescents, over half of them in rural
areas. In this paper the author will present the youth policies of that area of the world focusing on
their implications for sexuality education. Issues relating to gender equality, concept of
masculinity as well as the problems encountered in implementing these policies and how they
have been solved will also be addressed. The importance of giving young people a central role in
the development of policies which refer to them is a key strategy that will be included in the
presentation.
1022.4 Abortion and mental health, H. David, Transnational Family Research Institute,
Bethesda, MD, USA
Of all the possible complications of abortion, psychological responses are the most difficult to
assess and evaluate. The difficulties are further compounded by diverse cultural contexts, whether
access to legal abortion is readily available but socially and morally unacceptable, restricted, or
encouraged in certain circumstances. Developed within a public health perspective, this
presentation will focus on (1) scientific criteria in the assessment of the abortion decision making
process and postabortion mental health symptoms; (2) evidence of a postabortion syndrome and
severe psychological reactions over time; and (3) characteristics of women at greater risk for
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