This research was about the social representations of family for 69 children, from 9 to 10 years old, studying both in public and private schools, in the city of Recife. The theoretical perspective used was the Theory of Social Representation and the plurimethodologial quantity approach: free association questionnaires and words hierarchy; family drawing individual produced; and focal groups. In the results, analyzed according to Bardin and the software EVOC, we accessed the central core of family social representation grounded at positivated meanings near the core model. At the peripheral elements in both belonging contexts appeared multiple families arrangements and functional differentiations: for children in public schools family meanings oriented to fondness and to kin figures; and for the children from private schools family meanings oriented to harmony and peace, and affective bonds extended to friends and pets sometimes considered as family members.
social representations; family; children
