Repertório ocupacional infantil: : opressões, resistências e as marcas da desigualdade social

Carina Sousa Elias

doi:10.5354/0719-5346.2025.80297

Abstract

Occupations not only structure daily life and give meaning to it, but also shape the trajectories of individuals and groups, playing a fundamental role in the dynamics of social, economic, and political processes. However, considering that social inequality impacts childhood, such as reducing occupational opportunities, this study investigated how socioeconomic status impacts the development of children's occupational repertoires in different life contexts. The specific objectives were: a) to map and compare the occupational repertoires of children from different socioeconomic backgrounds, based on reports from caregivers and the children themselves, analyzing the occupational opportunities available in contexts of greater and lesser socioeconomic privilege; b) and to understand caregivers' perceptions of the impact of socioeconomic status on children's occupational lives, examining how context shapes these experiences. Regarding the methodological approach, this is a quantitative-qualitative study, which involved semi-structured interviews and the Checklist Intersetorial de Detecção de Risco ao Desenvolvimento Infantil (CIDRDI) instrument with caregivers, and the Paediatric Activity Card Sort (PACS) instrument with children aged 5 to 14. Participants were 35 families affiliated with an educational institution and Primary Healthcare Units in São Caetano do Sul/SP and Santo André/SP, Brazil. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics from the CIDRDI, inferential statistics from the PACS, and thematic analysis of the interviews. The results of the PACS statistical analysis showed no significant differences in the occupational profile of the children in the two groups, and the majority scored "low risk" for child development on the CIDRDI. However, thematic analysis of the interviews revealed five crucial themes that permeate the plurality of childhoods in the study and cross children's occupations, encompassing: (1) public policies for children; (2) urban occupation areas as a possibility of access to housing; (3) the Bolsa Família Program: between subsistence and subjugation in the capitalist system; (4) the nuances of the presence of organized crime as part of childhood spaces; (5) between barriers and possibilities: intersectionality in children's occupational dynamics; and, culminating in Buen Vivir as a new meaning for childhood and human occupations. Finally, this study highlights that the theoretical production and interpretations woven in this research based on the participants' life narratives aimed to highlight issues related to the construction of children's occupational repertoires in a scenario of social inequality, understanding the extent to which occupational opportunities are present in such plural childhoods. The study reaffirms that aspects such as food deprivation, precarious housing, difficulties in accessing public policies, violence by criminal organizations, state inaction, and other factors linked to intersectionality that result in oppression and exclusion most directly affect people in situations of social vulnerability, denying them autonomy in their choices and occupational opportunities and perpetuating occupational apartheid. Furthermore, Buen Vivir would be a viable alternative for children to have meaningful opportunities to build their occupational repertoire. Keywords: children's occupational repertoire; social inequality; oppression; Occupational Therapy.

Children's occupational repertoire:

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Carina Sousa Elias, UFSCar (Universidade Federal de São Carlos)

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