Youth, relationships and prevention in COVID times

• Grant number: 21/03465-0
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Scientific Initiation
• Start date: May 01, 2021
• End date: April 30, 2023
• Field of knowledge: Interdisciplinary Subjects
• Principal Investigator: Cristiane Gonçalves da Silva
• Grantee: Julia Consoli Ferrari Neves Brandão
• Host Institution: Instituto de Saúde e Sociedade (ISS). Universidade Federal de São Paulo (UNIFESP). Campus Baixada Santista. Santos , SP, Brazil
• Associated research grant: 17/25950-2 - Youth vulnerabilities to STI/HIV and to dating violence: evaluating a human rights based psychosocial intervention, AP.TEM

Abstract

This scientific initiation project is linked to the Thematic Project (# 2017 / 2590-2) which is at a strategic moment of redirection in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic and which requires investment. Thus, the objective of this study and scholarship for Scientific Initiation (IC) is to understand the relationships of friendship, flirting / dating and family members in a pandemic context and, how to take measures to protect the new coronavirus (use of mask and physical distance, in particular) in the daily situations of the lives of young students from public schools participating in the thematic study in the city of Santos. The specific contribution of this IC is to collaborate to understand how young people manage their relationships - friends, boyfriends, flirts, family - in a daily life intensely modified by the pandemic and crossed by the hierarchies of gender, generation and sexual orientation that are also reflected in relationships. In addition, the IC intends to investigate the prevention strategies used (or not) in the different contexts of life, including face-to-face meetings with the people with whom they relate. A greater understanding of the youth reality helps to develop prevention strategies from the perspective of and of the young person and helps to identify the challenges experienced by students who have been in remote education for more than a year and under a major impact of the pandemic, in subjective and material terms. Such learning will be central to revealing and strengthening youth social responses to the pandemic.The fellow will join the Baixada Santista mini-research team and will carry out daily monitoring and data collection related to thematic research with young people and other agents from both schools. At the moment, the research is in the process of redefining the design and methodology for continuity, which includes an in-depth study of the dimension of youth relationships, but also the dedication to understanding youth exchanges and practices among young people at the school, via digital media and, if sanitary conditions permit, observe and propose face-to-face activities in the future. The activities of the fellow will consist of: (1) continuing to collaborate with the ongoing process of the thematic study (analysis of the empirical material produced in 2019 and 2020; feedback on the results of the Preliminary Study and developments in the participating schools); (2) continue to collaborate in the organization of the training process regarding training in research methodology and ethics for all IC-EM students; (3) carry out direct supervision of the CIs of the MS of the Bartolomeu de Gusmão school and of the Technical School Aristóteles Ferreira (ETECAF); (4) carry out a bibliographic survey on youth in COVID times with a focus on: I. Relationships; II. Genre; III. Generation; IV. Prevention; (5) conduct in-depth interviews with students about: a) relationships with friends; b) dating and flirting; c) leisure; d) family relationships; d) prevention of coronavirus in life contexts and relationships; (6) collaborate in the creation of educational material on COVID prevention measures aimed at the youth audience, focusing on issues related to the plurality and diversity of youth in schools that are inserted in specific territories and the appropriate languages; (7) carry out at least two rounds of conversation to deepen the dimensions of the interviews; (8) continue to collaborate with the continuity of the thematic research, starting from the redefinition in process; (9) preparing records of the research process and partial and final reports; (10) participate in training / scientific events relevant to the universe of thematic study.