Family Social Context Research Articles

Food and housing insecurity, COVID-19 pandemic effects on health-related activities, and care plans for children with obesity

To understand the association between food insecurity (FI) and housing insecurity (HI) risk, the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on health-related activities among children with overweight or obesity, and caregivers' and clinicians' challenges and priorities related to pediatric weight management. We conducted surveys with caregivers of children with overweight and obesity and pediatric clinicians at two academic medical centers in the Greater Boston area. We used multivariable logistic regression models to examine associations between FI and HI risk and the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on health-related activities and descriptive statistics to summarize caregivers' and clinicians' challenges and priorities related to pediatric weight management. We analyzed data from surveys with 344 caregivers and 100 pediatric clinicians. Overall, 37% of caregivers endorsed both FI+HI, 18% FI alone, 10% HI alone, and 35% neither FI/HI. In the adjusted logistic regression models, combined FI+HI (reference: neither FI/HI) was significantly associated with higher odds of sleeping less (aOR 2.96 [95% confidence interval (CI): 1.46, 6.01]) and higher odds of spending less time outside (aOR 2.10 [95% CI: 1.06, 4.16]). Top priorities for pediatric weight management identified by both caregivers and clinicians were related to physical activity and availability of outdoor spaces. Endorsement of both FI+HI was associated with children getting less sleep and spending less time outside during the COVID-19 pandemic. Future innovations in care plans for children with overweight and obesity should be adapted to a family's social context and should incorporate caregivers' and clinicians' challenges and priorities.

Balancing diets: diverse values shaping sustainable food choices

PurposeThe paper aims to explore how values and knowledge are expressed in student’s discussions about food and health.Design/methodology/approachFood practices present a complex phenomenon extending beyond biomedical descriptions, including social dynamics of food in families and communities. Contextual conditions of social groups and settings have significant impacts on food choices and practices. Although values constitute a central part of educational goals, deliberate values education remains an often-neglected area, with a tendency in both curricula and educational practice to focus on knowledge and overlook how values intersect with knowledge. The paper utilises group interviews supported by participant observations to study the food and health practices as expressed in students' discussions.FindingsThe paper’s findings show how values are expressed together with knowledge as value-knowledges around food and health within the social contexts of family, cultural identities and peer relationships. While moving through their lives, students draw on and utilise biomedical, social-cultural and sensory value-knowledges, simultaneously considering the nutrition and taste of foods, the value of connecting with family and peers in cultural settings as well as getting enough food to feel satiated.Originality/valueThe paper presents an original approach around the necessity to consider and integrate cultural identities in discussions and education about food and health to empower students and their communities in a way that is socially just and equitable. This involves shifting discussions of health education away from students as (ir)rational obstacles but rather as partners in co-creating knowledge for sustainable food and health equity.

Multifaceted determinants of social-emotional problems in preschool children in Sweden: An ecological systems theory approach

Social-emotional problems occurring early in life can place children at future risk of adverse health, social and economic outcomes. Determinants of social-emotional problems are multi-layered and originate from different contexts surrounding children, though few studies consider them simultaneously. We adopted a holistic approach by using Bronfenbrenner's process-person-context-time model as a structuring device. We aimed to assess what characteristics of families and children from pregnancy, over birth, and up to 3 years of age are associated with social-emotional problems in boys and girls. This study used regional data from the Salut Programme, a universal health promotion programme implemented in Antenatal and Child Health Care, and data from national Swedish registers. The study population included 6033 3-year-olds and their parents during the period 2010–2018. Distinct logistic regression models for boys and girls were used to assess associations between the family social context, parents' lifestyle, parent's mental health, children's birth characteristics, and indicators of proximal processes (the independent variables); and children's social-emotional problems as measured by the parent-completed Ages and Stages Questionnaire: Social-Emotional between 33 and 41 months of age (the outcome). Overall, a less favourable family social context, detrimental lifestyle of the parents during pregnancy, and parents' mental illness from pregnancy onwards were associated with higher odds of social-emotional problems in 3-year-olds. Higher screentime and infrequent shared book-reading were associated with higher odds of social-emotional problems. The multifaceted determinants of children's social-emotional problems imply that many diverse targets for intervention exist. Additionally, this study suggests that Bronfenbrenner's process-person-context-time theoretical framework could be relevant for public health research and policy.

The Effects of Role Differentiation Among Clergy: Impact on Pastoral Burnout and Job Satisfaction.

The present study investigated the impact of differentiation of self as an emotion regulation strategy on work and family conflict, ministerial job satisfaction, and burnout for pastors. Specifically, does differentiation of self provide a psychological resource for pastors coping with the experience of burnout as emotional exhaustion, given the unique social context of the pastor's family and the role emotional labor has in causing burnout in social service professions? A unique aspect of the pastorate is the pastor's family's social context of living with the congregation. Due to this unique social context, work and family conflict were investigated as predictors of pastoral burnout. A sample of pastors (N = 164) was surveyed to investigate the impact of differentiation and job satisfaction on personal and work-related burnout. Findings suggest that differentiation of self provides a resource against the personal experience of burnout, while ministerial job satisfaction buffers pastors against work-related burnout.

Transforming everyday experience: Transformative learning, disorienting dilemmas and Honneth's theory of recognition

AbstractAxel Honneth's theory of recognition outlines the personal and social contexts of family, law and community solidarities in which recognition – and misrecognitions – are experienced. His work has implications for Mezirow's theory of transformative learning. Transformative learning is critiqued for an over dependence on the Dewey/Habermas foundations that demand high levels of rationality and for an over reliance on individual learning to the exclusion of social learning. Honneth's ideas are explored in order to further develop the understanding of how experience is central to transformative learning. Disorienting dilemmas and the perplexities that lead to transformative learning are reinterpreted as experiences that have personal and social dimensions. Experience – often seen as individual and unique ‐ cannot be disconnected from social contexts. Honneth helps us resolve these issues and allows us to re‐interpret transformative learning as the transformation of experience. Finally, two further concepts are introduced: a) the dialectic nature of experience (Negt); and b) the importance of completeness (Negt). These further enhance the experiential grounding for emancipation and the emancipatory project of transformative learning.

Substance Use in Relation to Mental Illness: A Study of Mexican-Origin Latinos with Schizophrenia and Their Family Members.

Little is known about family context and substance use behaviors among Latinos with schizophrenia. Learning about patient and family caregiver perceptions of use is critical to our understanding of how best to support these vulnerable patients and family caregivers. This study explored perceptions of substance use in relation to mental illness among Latinos primarily of Mexican origin with schizophrenia and their family caregivers. Semistructured interviews were conducted with 34 participants (20 family caregivers; 14 patients) with direct and indirect substance use experience, in their preferred language. Data were analyzed using thematic analysis, which consisted of comparing codes across and within patient and family caregiver transcripts. Findings revealed that substance use affected well-being, particularly patient recovery and caregiver burden. Strategies to address well-being included limiting substance use, being vigilant about patient use, and communicating the negative impact of use. The environmental impact and stigma of substance use were major contextual challenges. Patients addressed these by limiting their socialization. Family social context was important to how substance use was perceived and managed by patients and caregivers. As such, treatment models should consider a holistic perspective that incorporates family context when addressing substance use among Latinos with schizophrenia.

Retraining in Social Work for Arab Academic Women: Motivation and Integration into the Field

In recent decades, there has been an increased rate of higher education among Arab women in Israel that has been accompanied by an increase in their integration into various forms of employment. However, the employability options of academic Arab women graduates are limited due to the under-development of employment zones in Arab localities in the periphery of Israel. This policy has led to persistent deterioration in the quality of jobs and a high prevalence of underemployment. To examine how these women cope with underemployment, the present study focused on Arab academic women retraining in social work. This qualitative study is based on in-depth interviews with 27 graduate Arab women who have not found employment suitable for their original training. The article examined their motives to retrain in social work (intrinsic-extrinsic factors), learning process and integration into the field, their social-family context, and the way it determines their coping mechanism. The findings reveal their path of retraining in social work in their attempt to overcome barriers and factors such as culture, family, and employment opportunities that contribute to the selection of this coping mechanism that resulted in new employment trends among them and obtaining quality jobs.

Individual and Interpersonal Factors and Their Interaction Predicting the Intentional Physical Education Skipping Behavior among Lithuanian High School Students

The promotion of physical activity in physical education (PE) might be enabled only in the case that PE is attended. Intentional skipping of PE, while widespread, is understudied. The aim of the study is to identify individual and interpersonal correlates as well as their interaction effect on the intentional PE skipping behavior in Lithuanian high school students. This cross-sectional population-based study included 1285 students aged from 14 to 18 years old. Among them, 42.2 were male. PE skipping, sociodemographic, individual and interpersonal indicators were measured. Results revealed that 58.4% of high school students intentionally skip their PE class at least once per week. The main correlates of PE skipping are sedentary behavior and social participation. The main preventive factors are perception of PE usefulness, better self-rated health among direct predictors. Indirectly, social capital played a protective role for PE skipping classes through a more positive perception of PE usefulness. Raising awareness of physical education benefits, providing a rationale for physical education in the social contexts of family and school, in terms of family support and building trust with teachers, strengthening reciprocity at school indirectly prevents students’ PE skipping behaviors.

Making the best out of youth-The Improve the Youth project.

Adolescents' mental health determines their general health and their mental health as adults. Improve the Youth project (ITY) was created and implemented among Polish and Portuguese adolescents. The aim of the project was to investigate the well-being of Portuguese and Polish adolescents, and to evaluate differences between them in self-rated health, life satisfaction and perceived psychosomatic health. A mixed-method approach was applied. The quantitative part was based on Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) 2014 data, including adolescents aged 11-15 years (6026 in Portugal; 4545 in Poland). This study meets the issues raised by the HBSC results, regarding mental health in adolescence, and it is aimed to improve adolescents' social participation and active citizenship. In most study areas, findings in Poland were less favourable than in Portugal. The qualitative part was developed to recognize the main threats for adolescent's well-being. In this, they emphasised that every opportunity to talk about their feelings and needs resulted in improvement of their mental health. Elevated levels of stress were connected to environmental pressure and high expectations that they were often unable to cope with. Nervousness, perceiving that it was impossible to meet expectations, the desire to keep up with their peers, fatigue, and uncertainty of the future increased the feelings of frustration. The differences found between countries may be due to cultural roots, surfacing the relevance of assessing adolescents' mental health needs in the social context of family, school and peers. This study also aims to raise awareness among educators and stakeholders to the importance of youth engagement.

Características neuro-psicopedagógicas de las dificultades de aprendizaje escolar: un estudio de caso

Este artículo tiene como objetivo presentar las características neuropsicopedagógicas de un niño con dificultades escolares y de comportamiento. Se llevó a cabo un estudio de caso con un participante de 11 años de edad, quien durante la investigación cursaba el grado quinto de básica primaria en una institución educativa de carácter privado del municipio de Itagüí, Antioquia. Los instrumentos aplicados para la evaluación fueron: el Test Breve de Inteligencia de KAUFMAN (K-BIT), la Batería Psicopedagógica EVALÚA - 5, el Cuestionario de Depresión para Niños (CDS) y una entrevista semiestructurada para padres y docentes, relacionada con los aspectos del desarrollo, el aprendizaje y la conducta del estudiante. Los resultados demostraron que el niño presentaba un coeficiente intelectual dentro de los parámetros normales y las principales dificultades se encontraron en el contexto familiar-social, lo que permitió evidenciar que el rendimiento escolar es el resultado de la interacción de diferentes factores que abarcan componentes cognitivos, del neurodesarrollo, emocionales, familiares y contextuales. Así mismo, se evidenció que las dificultades en el comportamiento asociadas al contexto escolar no siempre están relacionadas con trastornos del aprendizaje o de la conducta. Se hace necesaria la obtención de este tipo de perfiles neuropsicopedagógicos con el fin de establecer rutas de intervención pertinentes y eficaces que incorporen las características cognitivas individuales, los vínculos socio afectivos, el entorno social, escolar, y la dinámica familiar del estudiante.

Interpersonal Perspectives on Work-Nonwork Dynamics: Theoretical & Empirical Explorations

Employees divide their time, effort, and activities between work and nonwork (e.g. family) domains. These domains are often characterized as dichotomous, yet interdependent. For example, psychological states often spill over from one domain to the other, and this holds positive and negative implications for employees’ work, family, and well-being outcomes. Research is beginning to consider employees’ interdependence with important relational partners across domains, such as significant others and leaders, who influence and are influenced by employees’ work-nonwork dynamics. This is consistent with interdependence theory, which recognizes the interplay between individuals’ thoughts, behaviors, and outcomes alongside those of their relational partners and their social context (Thibaut & Kelley, 1959). In this interactive symposium, we build from interdependence theory and prior research on the interplay between social relationships and work-nonwork dynamics to bring together three empirical papers and one theoretical paper that explore these ideas across work and family social contexts. Overall, this symposium advances research on work-nonwork dynamics within employees’ interpersonal relationships and broadens our understanding of how employees and their key relational partners jointly manage the work- nonwork divide. Moving Beyond “Me” to “We”: Co-Creation of Couples' Goals at the Work-Family Interface Presenter: Courtney R. Masterson; U. of San Francisco Presenter: Jeffrey Greenhaus; Drexel U. Presenter: Jenny M. Hoobler; U. of Pretoria Social Undermining in Couples: The Role of Recovery & Impact on Family-Work Conflict & Performance Presenter: Lindsay Mechem Rosokha; Purdue U. Presenter: Kelly Schwind Wilson; Purdue U., West Lafayette Presenter: Heidi Marie Baumann; Bradley U. Presenter: Catherine Kleshinski; Purdue U., West Lafayette The Crossover Effects of Supervisor Resilience to Employee and Family Well-Being Presenter: Jacquelyn Brady; San Jose State U. Presenter: Leslie Hammer; Portland State U. Presenter: Cynthia Mohr; Portland State U. Presenter: Mina Westman; Tel Aviv U. Does Leader Work-Life Training Help Subordinates? Integrating Resources and Job Control Perspectives Presenter: Ellen Ernst Kossek; Purdue U. Presenter: Caitlin M. Porter; U. of Memphis Presenter: Kelly Schwind Wilson; Purdue U., West Lafayette Presenter: Deborah Elizabeth Rupp; Purdue U. Presenter: Jared Law-Penrose; Indiana U. Southeast

Building a Foundation for Family Health Measurement in National Surveys: A Modified Delphi Expert Process.

Families are the most proximal and powerful context for the development, promotion, and disruption of health of individuals across the life course. Despite families' critical role in health, U.S. nationally representative health surveys lack comprehensive and standardized assessments of family health and functioning. To foster research on family health in population surveys, we developed a conceptualization of family health using a modified Delphi process with family health experts. Experts responded online to produce consensus definitions of 'family' and 'family health.' Guided by these definitions, they responded to a survey to create a list of concepts for measurement of family health and ranked the importance and measurability of those concepts. We achieved consensus among 15 family health experts on definitions of 'family' and 'family health.' Thirty-one family health concepts were organized into six domains, then ranked by relevance and importance as follows: (1) "Family relationships" and "family social context" tied for first priority, (2) "family member health, (3) "family health-related practices," (4) "family health resources," and (5) "management of time and activities." Social relationships and social environment were prioritized as more essential than other aspects of family environments typically assessed in population surveys, such as health practices and family members' illness and disease. This study develops the scientific groundwork needed to advance routine monitoring of family health in national health surveys and in child/family performance measures.

Adolescents\u2019 interest experience in daily life in and across family and peer contexts

This study examined daily experiences of interest in and across the social contexts of family and in- and out-of-school peers. Forty-two Dutch adolescents, aged 13–15 years, provided us with 2 weeks of experience sampling data on their engagement in interesting topics and activities throughout their daily lives. Findings show that adolescent daily life included a diverse range of parallel interests. School-related interests made up a substantial part of adolescents’ daily lives, challenging the idea of mere disengagement of secondary school students in academics. Findings also show that some interests are strongly bound to a specific context, while others appear across family and peer contexts. This indicates how multiple contexts can simultaneously feed interests, something that calls for further across-context research of interest development.

Developing an understanding of fatal child abuse and neglect: Results from the South African child death review pilot study

Fatal child abuse is the severest consequence of violence against children. Yet, little is known about this phenomenon, as routine data do not describe it. Child death review (CDR) teams have been established to systematically review deaths from birth to adolescence as a public health response to better identify child abuse deaths, to develop policy and to improve the child protection response. This article describes the incidence of fatal child abuse and injury patterns associated with such deaths. CDR teams reviewed all child fatalities from 1 January to 31 December 2014 at two pilot sites in South Africa (SA). Data were collected on demographics, causes and circumstances of the death, and family social context. We assessed the feasibility of CDR teams in the SA setting to strengthen the identification of child abuse deaths and influence practice. A total of 707 cases were reviewed. Over half (52.4%) of the deaths were due to natural causes. A third were caused by murder, with nearly half (44%) of all murders attributed to fatal child abuse. The burden of fatal child abuse and neglect was found among the <1-year age group. Abandonment at birth was most common, followed by blunt force injuries and strangulation/asphyxiation deaths. CDR teams are effective in better identifying deaths due to child abuse and neglect via a multidisciplinary approach and regular case reviews.

Developing an understanding of fatal child abuse and neglect: Results from the South African child death review pilot study

Fatal child abuse is the severest consequence of violence against children. Yet, little is known about this phenomenon, as routine data do not describe it. Child death review (CDR) teams have been established to systematically review deaths from birth to adolescence as a public health response to better identify child abuse deaths, to develop policy and to improve the child protection response. This article describes the incidence of fatal child abuse and injury patterns associated with such deaths. CDR teams reviewed all child fatalities from 1 January to 31 December 2014 at two pilot sites in South Africa (SA). Data were collected on demographics, causes and circumstances of the death, and family social context. We assessed the feasibility of CDR teams in the SA setting to strengthen the identification of child abuse deaths and influence practice. A total of 707 cases were reviewed. Over half (52.4%) of the deaths were due to natural causes. A third were caused by murder, with nearly half (44%) of all murders attributed to fatal child abuse. The burden of fatal child abuse and neglect was found among the <1-year age group. Abandonment at birth was most common, followed by blunt force injuries and strangulation/asphyxiation deaths. CDR teams are effective in better identifying deaths due to child abuse and neglect via a multidisciplinary approach and regular case reviews.

Vietnam. Haunting images: A cultural account of selective reproduction in Vietnam By Tine M. Gammeltoft Berkeley: University of California Press, 2014. Pp. 336. Plates, Notes, Bibliography, Index.

Haunting images: A cultural account of selective reproduction in Vietnam By TINE M. GAMMELTOFT Berkeley; University of California Press, 2014. Pp. 336. Plates, Notes, Bibliography, Index. doi: 10.1017/S0022463414000782 What do prospective parents in greater Hanoi experience when they encounter the image of a foetus on the screen of an ultrasound scanning machine? What if the sonographer tells them that the foetus has an anomaly? This powerful, heart-wrenching, and beautifully written ethnography shows how images of a foetal anomaly force prospective parents to confront a series of existential and ethical questions about humanity, social belonging, and the nature of life itself: What, they must decide, constitutes a full and complete human being? Who has the capacity to make decisions about whether or not life should be denied to this potential child? In addition to offering new views of a foetus, ultrasonography and prenatal screening in Vietnam also raise unexpected moral quandaries. As one of the fathers in the book put it, 'it is a question of conscience' (p. 8). As one of the mothers put it, 'I think my child would have suffered. He would not have been able to enjoy the beauty of life. To be human means to be able to experience life, to love and to hate' (p. 166). Life, love, humanity, beauty, death, conscience, science, medicine and belonging--this book offers many things for many different readers. It is an invitation to ruminate on what it means to be human; it offers a window into the history and context of ultrasound scanning in Vietnam; it speaks to issues of state-society relations; it raises difficult and morally ambiguous issues about attitudes towards disability; it engages the legacy of Agent Orange; and it is an extraordinary contribution to medical anthropology. In this last respect, as anthropology, the book is also a fine example of the ethnographer's craft. Its arguments build carefully from vividly presented ethnographic details to show how human beings interface with medical technology and how patients interact with doctors and other experts in the course of making health-care decisions. The book shows how every decision about selective reproduction made in Vietnam is impacted by the larger social context of family, kin-networks, social expectations, and state policies. All of these levels of social interaction, furthermore, are carefully shown to be connected to the legacy of the Vietnam War, the lingering effects of Agent Orange, Vietnamese state commitments to population quality, the economic difficulties of raising children with disabilities in a country with limited infrastructure, as well as cultural understanding of intersubjective obligations, filial duties, and moral responsibility. The book succeeds in weaving together all of these complex threads by focusing on thirty core cases in which there was a diagnosis of a deformed foetus. Although the research team conducted hundreds of interviews and carried out other surveys and extensive documentary research to support their findings, the great strength of the book lies in the way it makes its arguments through the fine-grained stories of select individuals. The ethnography, based on three years of collaborative fieldwork with Vietnamese colleagues beginning in 2003 and sustained over most of the decade to follow, is rich and convincing. …

‘You want the best for your kids’: improving educational outcomes for children living in poverty through parental engagement

Background: Existing evidence suggests a relationship between family social contexts, family relationships and interactions, children’s social and cognitive development and educational outcomes. Interventions that assist families in relation to parenting and supporting children’s development can have positive effects on both parents’ skills and the educational progress of their children.Purpose: This article reports on a study conducted in an area with high levels of social and economic deprivation in Scotland, which aimed to investigate the nature and effectiveness of the services in place to support poor families. The project focused on capturing the experiences of parents and what they perceived as effective support from the nursery and school staff in terms of getting them more involved in their children’s learning.Sample: There was a particular focus on the four-to-seven-year age group, thus covering the crucial transition from pre-school (or non-school) provision to primary school. A sample of three Early Education & Childcare Centres (EECCs) and three schools were selected. The schools and EECCs were all from areas of high social deprivation and had a high proportion of children on free school meals.Design and methods: The study was qualitative in design and included in-depth semi-structured interviews with 19 service managers and practitioners, six focus groups with parents and six activity groups with children. Data were analysed using both pre-determined and emerging codes.Results: While all parents recognised the value of education for their children’s social mobility and opportunities and were keen to engage in activities, they remained aware of the limited resources they could draw upon, mainly in terms of their restricted academic competencies, specialist knowledge and qualifications. The desire to help their children overcome their families’ economic circumstances was also hampered by the absence of strong social and kinship networks that they could draw upon.Conclusions: We draw on concepts of social and cultural capital to examine parents’ positioning in relation to their children’s education. The conclusion highlights parents’ strategic orientation to school/nurseries, often seen as a resource of cultural capital, and calls for a more positive discourse of parental engagement in relation to disadvantaged groups.

Neighborhood Effects, Mental Illness and Criminal Behavior: A Review.

This paper briefly reviews the social science on “neighborhood effects” as an independent force in shaping poor outcomes, specifically mental illness and criminal behavior, before discussing the implications of that research for understanding the relationship between neighborhoods, race and class. Neighborhood effects research has proliferated in recent years with extensive attention again being focused on the social context of family and individual development and life course. Moreover, recent work has suggested the need to consider the developmental effects of neighborhoods that persist across life-span. This paper will focus specifically on mental illness and criminal behavior as outcomes for understanding neighborhood effects, but will also consider what the structural causes of individual behavior and functioning mean for clinical assessment, especially forensic assessment.

"You don't have to keep everything on paper": African American women's use of family health history tools.

Little is known about African American women's collection of family health history (FHH) information and use of FHH tools. Most FHH research has investigated tools that use a biomedical paradigm, but other kinds of tools, such as those that include information about family social context, have been developed for use in diverse populations. Using mixed methods, we interviewed 32 African American women about behavioral steps to collecting FHH, family communication about health, and reactions to a biomedical FHH tool. Participants chose one of two FHH tools to take home. A follow-up call three weeks later assessed tool use. Many participants expressed support for writing down FHH information, but at baseline few had done so; most participants who had collected FHH information had done so verbally. Participants reacted positively to the biomedical FHH tool used during the interview, with many saying it allowed them to see patterns in their FHH. At follow-up, 67% reported using their FHH tool, primarily to promote discussion among family members; only 32% used the tool to write down FHH information. Although participants thought collecting FHH information was important and had positive reactions to both tools, the majority did not use the tools to write down information and instead collected FHH informally. These findings underline the importance of separating the components of FHH collection behaviors to analyze the steps used in FHH creation. Practitioners should consider additional methods of encouraging patients to create written FHHs in order to share the information with health care providers.

Educação em saúde com adolescentes: compartilhando vivências e reflexões

This is a report of an educational experience with adolescents, resultant from the partnership between School and Family Health Basic Unit that develops Health and Prevention Projects in Schools as a field of action and research of the Educational Program for Health Work in Maracanau-CE, Brazil. The purpose was to describe experiences of health education in two meetings, with 16 school adolescents from 13 to 19 years of age, with the problem axis pregnancy and contraceptive methods. The meetings were guided by the theoretical framework of culture circle proposed by Paulo Freire. Ludic and constructive tools, facilitating the reflection and construction of knowledge among professionals and students were used. The adolescents denied the possibility of pregnancy as real and relevant in life, and demonstrated knowledge on contraceptive methods. There is an urgent need to strengthen preventive actions regarding information on sex and reproduction among adolescents, as well as encourage the autonomy of these individuals in the social family context. The educational proposal in a problematical perspective was configured as a key strategy to involve adolescents in the theme discussion and knowledge appropriation.