Vulnerability situations the environment where a child and its family are inserted may be translated into life and development conditions. This study aimed to learn the perceptions by the family of vulnerability situations and its components, related to the ecological environment, in children who face chronic diseases, hospitalized in a Hospital School in the city of Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil. It is a quantitative research from the perspective of a descriptive exploratory study. Data was collected from nine participants, by using dynamic activities of creativity and sensibility, analyzed according to the Content Analysis referential. Three categories of analysis emerged, and here the familiar micro-system was explored as construct of the individual component of vulnerability. The search for an intersection demonstrates that an individual component of vulnerability has reflexes on the micro-system constitution, which reinforces the importance of envisioning the individual as construct and constructor of the environment where his/her existence takes place.
Vulnerability; Family; Pediatric nursing