Representações sociais sobre a violência contra a criança para mulheres que a praticaram.

Abstract

Violence against children is present in human history, although it has been constituted as a private phenomenon of family life. For a long time, children have been seen as objects of action of the adult world, not being recognized as a political being and possessor of rights. Furthermore, the misunderstanding of parental rights has caused the child abuse to be installed and maintained. The growth and development of children are closely related to quality of the environment in which they live, it means that bad experience has a negative impact.It is a fact that violence against children is a complex phenomenon associated with many factors such as the representations of childhood violence and relations between parents and children, which were historically constructed and are closely linked to the socio-cultural context of the subject. Thus, this study aimed to understand the social representations of violence against children according to the view of women who has practiced it. This is a qualitative, descriptive and exploratory study. This study included five women who had practiced some form of violence against children and who were being followed up at an institution of psychotherapeutic services for families in situations of violence in a city in southern Rio Grande do Sul. Data were collected between July and August 2013 through semi-structured interviews and building genogram. It was built six categories using Textual Discourse Analysis and the theoretical framework of Social Representations Theory. (Un) learning to relate to others: showed that all women have experienced violence in childhood, noting that violent experiences in childhood can be understood as normal, allowing playback in future relationships. The speech about the maternal role: women expressed representations of being a mother which are consistent with the ones socially expected from parents raising children, however, the speech did not tune the practices of participants, since they expressed difficulties in caring for and protecting their kids. Violence as a resource for educational practices: women reported using coercive educational practices and claimed that the intention that guides the aggressive attitude is not considered as violence. Parenting sustained by the power: women showed difficulties in exerting a positive parenting and bring with them the representation of a child as inferior and subservient to the adult world. Violence in emotional imbalance: violence expressed against children as an act practiced and justified by the lack of emotional control. Understanding violence and trying to break it: four basic forms of violence appeared on the depiction of violence against children and women expressed an apparent attempt to break the circle of violence that is not happened in their daily life. It is concluded that the social representations of violence against children are close related to the historical aspects, linked to the meanings assigned to children and childhood and the individual experiences of the women in this study. Thus, nursing can contribute to the deconstruction of this scourge of childhood in that it operates in different scenarios of health care enabling assistance to families in the three levels of care.