Is my family cool? The family in the child’s imaginary

The purpose of this paper is to analyze children’s views concerning the contemporary family. The goal is to understand how children represent their families and how they perceive the links between work, family and their own personal worlds. Required to write an essay on the subject “My family”, 52 c...

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Bibliographic Details
Authors: LEVY, Lidia, JONATHAN, Eva Gertrudes
Format: article
Status:Published version
Publication Date:2010
Country:Brasil
Institution:Pontifícia Universidade Católica de Campinas (PUC-CAMPINAS)
Repository:Estudos de Psicologia (Campinas)
Language:Portuguese
OAI Identifier:oai:ojs.periodicos.puc-campinas.edu.br:article/7125
Online Access:https://periodicos.puc-campinas.edu.br/estpsi/article/view/7125
Access Level:Open access
Keyword:Imaginário
Relações familiares
Relação trabalho-família
Subjetividade
Imaginary
Family relationships
Family-work relationship
Subjectivity
Description
Summary:The purpose of this paper is to analyze children’s views concerning the contemporary family. The goal is to understand how children represent their families and how they perceive the links between work, family and their own personal worlds. Required to write an essay on the subject “My family”, 52 children participated in this exploratory research. An analysis of the content of the essays revealed six categories of meaningsascribed to the family: conflict, work, leisure, values, family union and detachment. In order to cope with stressful family life, children provided several solutions. Greater emphasis was accorded to three of these solutions: a favorable view of their parents’ work, the tendency to take advantage of the positive aspects of family companionship and emphasizing the supportive features. Thus, children kept their families functioning as a vessel for their anxieties. Based on the child’s imaginary, this study contributes to a better understanding of family dynamics and the structuring of the subject in the present day.