The aim of this study was to analyse the conception of adolescence/adolescent in youth's discourse as well as the way they understand the passage to adulthood. A critical discussion was made joining this conception with that presented by Psychology and spread by the media. The analysis was based on the sociohistorical approach which views adolescence as a historically constructed category. The subjects were 856 female and male high school students from the Greater São Paulo, between the ages of 14 and 21, belonging to socioeconomic classes A to E and to three ethnic groups found in the studied population (whites, negroes and Oriental descents). A five open-ended questionnaire was applied and next a qualitative analysis was carried out through Spad-T program. The collected material resulted in seven meaning nuclei which indicate the diversity of adolescences in our society and the importance of understanding the adolescent process within specific contexts taking into account its multidetermination. Despite some aspects being common to all adolescents, diversities were observed, basically because of the different social classes and gender. The ethnic determination (particularly as regards the Oriental descents) was also highlighted in the constitution of subjectivity and in dealing with the social reality.
ADOLESCENTS; PSYCHOLOGY; SOCIAL CLASS; GENDERS RELATIONSHIP
