Caracterização do ciclo vital de famílias em situação de vulnerabilidade social

Abstract

Social and economic changes that have occurred in recent centuries have caused changes in the way family groups organize and structure. The family life cycle theory, inserted in the field of Systemic Family Therapy, seeks to understand how these interfere in the development of family relationships throughout life. North American and Brazilian studies described the family life cycle in phases, each with its peculiarities and interdependence, principally, in middle class of society. It is known, therefore, that these theoretical constructs are an important instrument for understanding the population group cited. In this work, socially vulnerable families are understood as those who present difficulties in the development process of their members, mainly due to the precarious conditions to which they are subjected. Objective: to describe the life cycle of a group of socially vulnerable families from a small city inside of São Paulo State. Method: descriptive, qualitative and cross-sectional research. A semi-structured interview script and Genogram application was used, with the participation of 14 families benefiting from the Bolsa Família Program (PBF), randomly drawn. The interviews were audiorecorded and transcribed, and the data produced were analyzed qualitatively by phenomenological groups of responses with similar semantics and discussed with the pertinent literature. Results: the main findings showed that the families were predominantly in the Acquisition and Adolescent phase (21.5%) each. In the Acquisition phase, it was possible to observe deficient family planning, reflected in the short preparation time for marital union (less than 1 year to 35.8%) and unplanned pregnancy to (78.5%). In the phase of the Adolescent Family, the centralization of child care was observed in the maternal figure (78.5%), a period in which the main difficulties pointed out by the families (50%) were the relationship with the sons. In the phase of the Mature Family was observed the return to the family of origin (43%), after marital separation, who had constituted a new family nucleus stood out. In the Last phase, the difficulties of the older generation of families were observed (79%) and the dependence on social benefits for the support of the enlarged family, in a period of human development in which health conditions may not be ideal. Conclusion: there was correspondence with the findings of The North American studies with socially vulnerable families, regarding the demographic profile and dynamics of relationships. Regarding the comparison with the North American and Brazilian studies, with middle class families, there was a significant difference in the characterization of the cycle, which corroborates the hypothesis that social inequality interferes in this process. It is expected that the knowledge achieved with the research can contribute to the improvement of professional interventions in the scope of public policies, especially Health and Social Assistance, which are paramount for this population group.