PREVENTION OF VIOLENCE AGAINST CHILDREN AND ADOLESCENTS: workshops with young people in the school context
Adolescence. Prevention. Drawing-Story Procedure with Theme. Winnicott.
The word adolescence comes from the Latin adolescere, which means to grow. It refers to a unique and pivotal period in an individual's life, situated between childhood and adulthood. This phase is marked by physical changes, as well as psychic and emotional transformations that, despite taking time, reflect growth and maturity. The current scenario indicates that violence against children and adolescents as a multifaceted issue, experienced uniquely, and that affects everyone, in addition to being a serious public health problem. The Child and Adolescent Statute and several scientific studies point out the need to prevent the occurrence of this violation of rights, as well as the importance of recognizing adolescent protagonism in exercising their citizenship and expanding their critical sense. Therefore, the overarching aim of this research was to analyze the strategies for preventing violence against children and adolescents developed together with young people, and more specifically: to understand the meanings of violence against children and adolescents expressed by adolescents; inform and raise awareness about the types of violence against children and adolescents and the protection network for these subjects; analyze the strategy offered to exercise creativity among adolescents, as well as the products created by them regarding the prevention of violence in childhood and adolescence. This is a qualitative research of an interventional, descriptive and exploratory nature, approved by the Research Ethics Committee of the Federal University of Alagoas, under opinion no. 4,827,067. Five workshops were held in two public schools in a capital in the Northeast of Brazil with 13 adolescents (11 females and two males) aged between 12 and 18 years old, with an average age of 14 years old. Workshop 1 was held to get to know the adolescents, start creating bonds and apply an initial questionnaire. In Workshop 2, participants were tasked with creating drawings depicting this phenomenon. The third session included an expository-dialogue presentation on topics related to violence against children and adolescents, and the rights of this public. In the fourth session, participants expressed what their understandings, thought about the meetings and how they believed violence prevention was possible. At the final meeting, a dialogue about the workshops and a second questionnaire were completed. The instruments used in this investigation were: field diaries, two questionnaires (initial and final) about participants' knowledge about violence against children and adolescents and the Drawing-Story with Theme procedure, with the instruction Draw a picture about violence against children and adolescents." The field diaries underwent Minayo Content Analysis, the DE-T were analyzed following Aiello-Vaisberg's recommendations. Data interpretation was grounded on Winnicott's psychoanalysis and current academic literature on the subject. The results obtained through the analysis of the drawings show the predominance of identification of Interpersonal Intrafamily Violence, perpetrated in the domestic environment, of a physical, sexual and psychological nature. The analysis of the products created by the participants on the prevention of violence against children and adolescents highlights the importance of articulation within the network, the need for information and understanding of the topic and its consequences for society. The workshops provided an environment that facilitated reflection, active participation and expression of creativity for the participating individuals and increased knowledge on the topic. It is expected that the data found will raise the importance of carrying out investigations in the school environment, as well as being a way of enhancing actions regarding the primary prevention of violence against children and adolescents.