Parental Beliefs About the Effectiveness of Medicinal Plants and Implications for Child Care and Medicalization
Amazon; Ethnopharmacology; Ethnobotany; Child health; Family health.
The use of medicinal plants has accompanied human development from antiquity to the present day as a resource of alternative medicine adopted by a significant portion of the global population. This health practice can be influenced by numerous factors, including politics, culture, and religion, and is mediated by beliefs, attitudes, and knowledge. This study will analyze parental beliefs about the efficacy of medicinal plants and their implications for child care, particularly regarding medicalization and childcare practices. Generally, beliefs refer to an individual's subjective judgments about aspects of their world. In this research, we rely on an information processing model presented by Fishbein and Ajzen (1975), which categorizes beliefs into descriptive, inferential, and informational. The theoretical basis of the research will also include the developmental niche theory proposed by Harkness and Super (1994), which focuses on how the environment (both physical and social), caregiving practices, and caregivers' beliefs influence and shape human development. For data collection, we will use the following instruments: (a) a sociodemographic questionnaire addressing variables such as gender, age, race, education, religiosity, marital status, and income level; (b) a semi-structured questionnaire about parents' relationship with medicinal plants and their caregiving practices concerning their children's health; and (c) images depicting the physical and social environment of these individuals' lives, obtained via the WhatsApp application. Quantitative results will be analyzed using descriptive statistical tests, which will allow for the understanding of patterns, relationships, and trends among the responses. Qualitative results will be analyzed using the Discourse of the Collective Subject (Lefèvre; Lefèvre, 2006), a technique derived from social representation theory used to understand individuals' perceptions and interpretations of the world around them through their own words, which are then categorized into a discourse that collectively represents the investigated subjects. Additionally, we will use a field diary as a record of observations about the research, aiding in reflection and evaluation of the investigation process, as well as allowing for a better understanding of the phenomenon being studied. As outcomes, we hope to identify how parents' and caregivers' beliefs in the effectiveness of medicinal plants impact the healthcare they provide to their children and how sociodemographic characteristics, such as gender, age, race, education, religiosity, marital status, and income level, relate to these beliefs.