Produção de sentidos e caminhos existenciais: como adolescentes abrigados significam as suas histórias de vida?

Abstract

Childhood protection is a complex topic of discussion and researches inside and outside psychological Field. The present research sought to understand how two adolescents in a situation of foster institution, give meaning to their personal histories before the received and during the institutionalization, and how they think it will be after they leave the shelter. Scrapbook was used as a ludic instrument, access to the narratives, having as theoretical support Clinical Sociology, and as a methodological perspective the (Auto)biography research. This study showed that foster institution is due to different rights violations of children and adolescents, reflecting a framework of social vulnerability. The protective measure of shelter, aimed at guaranteeing the right to family and community coexistence, does not work well in practice. The shelter is a complex and controversial place, which often does not fulfill its role. It can be a place of reproductions of vulnerabilities and unprotection. And it can also be a place of protection, affective relations, references and existential exits. By giving voice to these subjects, the work provided a space for listening and reflection on their own life histories and post-institutionalization perspectives, allowing re-significances. Foster institution may be a "necessary evil" or an "unwanted good". Most important is, within the shelter or not, they want to be heard, to be loved, to be sheltered.