El alargamiento de la juventud: un análisis psicosocial de las tr ayectorias de jóvenes de Brasil y España

Abstract

This paper aims to investigate the manifestation of the phenomenon of youth prolongation in Brazilian and Spanish youngsters and its influences on identity construction processes of these individuals. For this, we have taken as a reference group individuals aged 25 to 29 years old in the cities of Fortaleza (Brazil) and Madrid (Spain).We start from the idea that the process of social and labor precarization and flexibility currently observed in various contexts and accentuated by the economic crisis severely obstructs the social inclusion of young people, often resulting in delayed entry into the labor market and in achieving their financial stability. This would have as one of its consequences the postponing intensification of the thresholds of transition to adulthood - leaving parents’ home, pairing and having children - as a you th strategy to deal with these difficulties. This postponement would represent the opening of a larger temporary space for youth in the lives of young people producing new experiences, discourses and meanings of the very condition of being young and new possibilities of identity construction. In addition, the idea of an elongated youth tends to expand further through the media as an ideal model and it becomes a possibility of identification for a significant group of young people. To study this phenomenon we have developed a qualitative research, using an analytical - descriptive and cross - sectional design. We have chosen to work with individual in - depth and semi - structured interviews with 50 young men and women from 25 to 29 years old, half of them from Madrid / Spain and half from Fortaleza / Brazil. We chose this group because they are officially in the last years of the juvenile stage in both countries and also because they live more closely issues of the transition to adulthood and experience the possibility of youth prolongation. The interviews were recorded - with the consent of the interviewees - and transcribed. The speeches of the interviewees have been organized through the Atlas-ti ® softwear and analyzed through a semantic content analysis. The discussion of the data and presentation of the contents have been made from three macro categories: transition paths to adulthood, social identity and being young, and youth prolongation. From our analysis the phenomenon of youth prolongation would be manifes ted in two ways. On one hand, the youngsters elongate their youth by the postponement of transition thresholds to adulthood - being young - remaining in a state of less independence and autonomy. That is evident mainly among young Spanish people and Brazilians with better financial situation. On the other hand, young people tend to prolong their youth through the almost unlimited postponement of the feeling of being young - feel young - maintaining the attitudes, values and lifestyles of youth that are positively evaluated in our society and that are represented by the youthful spirit and ideal of eternal youth. This is observed more generally among young people of both countries showing the intensification of youth prolongation as a new social ideal. And as it promotes the building of a positive social identity, the youth prolongation becomes a possibility for identification for an increasingly significant group of people.