Família contemporânea: complexidades e desafios atuais

Abstract

The present study sought to understand the place that parents take in the process of raising children, as well as their perception about this process. One of the features that are observed contemporarily are the diversity and the complexity of the interpersonal relationships. In this sense, we live in a moment of doubt on what concerns being in the world, where social and family roles are less defined. Thus, it is necessary to understand how the family has adapted itself to these changes and how the conflicts that underlie these relationships have been characterized. As a consequence, it is understood that the relationship between parents and children is to mediate the development of the subjectivity of the individual. This is a qualitative research and makes use of psychoanalysis as a theoretical background necessary for understanding the subjectivity of the subjects studied. Two low middle class families of Goiânia participated in this survey and both had teenage children studying at the same school. The interview was conducted with each member separately, in a total of six subjects. From the core of the meaning of the subjects, we tried to capture the meaning of the word family to each one as well as a sense of being a father and a mother. It was observed that both families made an idealized representation of themselves, showing a contradiction between the ideal and the real family. In addition to these data, other categories that were created from the speech of the participants were: the difficulty of parents to raise their children, to impose limits, the relation of symmetry, and the absence of references in the process of education, among others. In conclusion, it was found that today parents have no clear references when it comes to raise their children, and the data also showed the difficulties of establishing the authority over their children. The children, in turn, exposed their resentment at the absence of their parents when they are at work.