YOUTH'S SOCIAL DYNAMICS. AN INSIGHT ON THE PERSPECTIVE OF REPRESENTATIONS AND SPARE TIME PRACTICES.

Abstract

Spare times constitute a central matter on the field of social dynamics that shape the youth's contemporaneity. Attitudes and behaviours evidenced on those periods are decisive in determining the respective identity, education and development (Cardwell & Darling, 1999; Fletcher; Nickerson & Wright, 2003; Munson & Savickas, 1998; Piko & Vazsonyi, 2004). Therefore this study's goal was to identify the representations young men have over spare time, to check on the developed practices on those periods of time and to examine the implications of those on their education. The study had its incidence on 60 young men attending the 9th grade in public schools in the Portuguese cities of Braga and Coimbra, to whom semi-structured interviews were made. The used information treatment technique was the one called "content analysis" (Bardin, 1977; Creswell, 1994). Spare times represent freedom and pleasure for the youth. The more developed activities are unstructured, prevailing watching TV, using the personal computer (video games), the Internet, practising sport and listening to music. The more appointed reasons for these practices are the fun and the development of new knowledge. Social contexts in which they develop occur among friends, while alone, with the family as well as in community.