Um senhor de família: representações sociais de paternidade de jovens pais e não pais

Abstract

As social constructs, the male and female gender notions are not apart from the historical, socio-economic and cultural contexts in which they are inserted. For a better understanding of the paternity phenomenon under the masculine perspective, especially among the youth, a two-front study was performed. In one of them, four youngsters who became fathers between 17 and 24 years old were interviewed. two from middle classes and two from lower classes. In this study, more than identifying the social representations of paternity and maternity, we were interested in unveiling the parental practices and the changes in life brought by paternity. Meanwhile, a questionnaire was applied to sixty young men about the same age as the previous group, aiming to understand the paternity and maternity social representations, through the free evocation technique. As a theoretical reference, we used the Social Representations Theory, because it allowed us to understand the core of the representations, as well as their mobility and articulation within the social practices. These two approaches were chosen to verify the existence of the 'new paternity' notion, highlighted in some studies; moreover, to identify possible similarities among the social representations of subjects in the same generation, considering their experience as fathers and the socio-economic positions in which they are inserted. EVOC software and the phenomenological method were utilized for the data analysis. The results emphasize that the social representations of the young men are still very traditional, although it is possible to spot some elements which refer to the 'new paternity' model. Furthermore, the data also indicate that the paternity experience brought some different perspectives on maternity and paternity between fathers and non-fathers.