Social Representations of Cancer in the Perception of Students Who Attend Brazilian Public Schools

Abstract

As an illness, cancer is strongly established in the social imagination. Individuals build ideas from medical, social, and media discourses, which makes it sometimes difficult for them to comprehend the subject. Educational interventions have focused on disseminating information concerning the disease but have remained indifferent to its social connotations. The present study aimed to identify the presence and temporal change of the social representations about cancer among 980 adolescents from Brazilian public and private schools. To this end, a voluntary and anonymous questionnaire was applied so that a quantitative and statistical evaluation could be performed. In general, the results indicate that negative social representations concerning the disease predominate in younger age groups. This tendency is gradually reduced as students grow older. Social representations are not static but change structurally, depending on the surroundings and social contexts. Family, the media, and teachers are the main sources of information. In this context, a pessimistic view regarding the disease is prevalent among men. Generally, the disease is seen from three perspectives. “Destruction” centers on statements concerning death, especially when a family member or friend has the disease. The “incurability” perspective associated with death is equally divided among the opinions on the binomials of life/death and heal/get sick. Finally, “resolution” or cure depends on early diagnosis and treatment. Although there is a consensus at this aspect, most perceptions describe the disease as negative, responsible for the loss of hair and weigh, being more severe in females and occasionally associated with a divine punishment. The obscure logic of contagion appears in the discourse of lay people as a possible means of transmission. These findings reflect the unique structure of the representations in a population of adolescents, which in some cases, may hinder an understanding of the benefits of preventive behaviour.