Production of meanings and Existential Paths: how sheltered adolescents mean their life histories?
Foster institution, sheltered adolescents, (auto)biographical narratives, production of meanings.
Childhood protection is a complex topic of discussion and researches inside and outside psychological Field. This research aimed to contribute to this discussion presenting the narratives of two youth of a shelter unity in Natal-RN. Through their own glances and voices the narratives of institutionalization were discussed, tangled to both their previous life and the foresight to draw plans after the shelter. In order to achieve these goals, scrapbook was used as a ludic instrument to bring their narratives in a methodological scheme supported by (auto)biographical research and Clinical Sociology. This methodological procedure provides a reflexive setting in which new meanings about their life could emerge. The results 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. Therefore, foster institution may be a "necessary evil" or an "unwanted good".