Social Representations of Youth in a Quilombola Community in Agreste Pernambucano

Abstract

The goal of this study was to analyze the social representations about adolescence between adolescents and parents from a quilombola community. We conducted semistructured interviews with 35 adolescents and 30 parents, in order to apprehend ideas, values, feelings and social practices perceived by them relating to adolescence. Data analysis was performed with the software Alceste. In general, this population conceive the existence of a stage located between childhood and adulthood. For parents, the youth is characterized by incompleteness and immaturity, while young people attach to that stage, the increased responsibility. For both, the beginning of affective-sexual lives, fun, participation in parties and drinking practices are typical of the young in the community and the head markers of youth. Changes in nominations and concepts about youth point to the dynamic character of social representations, which conceives conflicts and hierarchies underlying to its content.