Álcool e sociabilidade: a farra das adolescentes

The experience as a school psychologist allowed me to notice that expressions like I was like trash in the gang s barbecue , and we chatted away, only the girls, and we all got drunk , are very common in conversations between Elementary and High School students, pointing out to a concerning incidence of alcohol consumption among female adolescents. However, studies about this theme haven t gone deep in the nowadays reality these girls are living in. This study aimed at comprehending the aspects of the relation between girls and alcohol, starting from the point that exaggerated consumption indicates introductory rituals for some groups, making social relations easier and becoming a sociability factor. To give this study some support, a questionnaire was applied to 1028 female teenagers, between 12 and 18 years old, students in private schools in Natal, capital of Rio Grande do Norte. The context chosen for the development of the study - private schools -, arose from the notion that the majority of the data collection carried out about alcohol and other psychotropic drugs aim at public school students. The instrument used was divided in two parts, one that treated about the first contact with alcohol (experimentation), and other that points to the current relation with alcoholic beverages, with 27 closed questions but nevertheless with available space for manifestation like if other; which?, applied collectively in classrooms. The data received a statistic treatment from SPSS and showed that the first contact with alcoholic beverage happens in domestic environment, having parents and friends as companions, very precociously, around 10 years of age, as curiosity. At this moment, Ice drink is the most consumed beverage. The main reason that leads them to drink is to pass the time in parties, and they don t drink alone (93% of students researched), what gives alcohol this recreational and socializing characteristic. They do consider alcohol a kind of drug, but are not afraid of getting addicted. People that drink usually show to be extroverted, they get happier (40,3%) and are not shy at all (29,4%), have attitudes of moral character, like to get involved with unknown boys (18,5%), get numb (9,9%), or get sad (1,9%). They label as vulgar the girls that drink, depending on the amount, and to be stimulated by the boys to drink. The study shows that systematic interventions of the school are necessary, once it is an institution that should care about education and personality traits of children and adolescents, as well as the important role of the psychologist in this context. Besides, it claims the society to get effectively involved with the public policies that already exist

Extensão universitária: concepções e ações na UFRN sob a temática direitos humanos e justiça no período 2008 a 2010

This paper concerns a study on the University Extension, by reference to the research extension activities under the theme human rights and justice, developed in the period 2008 to 2010 in UFRN. To do so, it tried to learn the concepts of extension in Brazil from the 1970s until the 2000s in contemporary times. This study considered the neoliberal social context of the University, dominated by educational policies focusing on the hegemony of liberal ideas about society, reflecting the great advances of capital on the organization of workers in the last decades and intensified in the 1990s. This research was guided by two great motivations: the opportunity to apprehend a way to enforce the commitment of public institutions of higher education to the disadvantaged sections of society and what role the university extension space plays as a socially committed public university. The general aim of this study is to identify inside the university extension education what does it mean for practitioners and extension activities and what results it produces to society and to the academic training of future professional citizens in the current neoliberal context. The research has been developed from an analytical and critical approach based on quantitative and qualitative data, using observation techniques and semi-structured interviews. We sought to investigate and understand the social reality, the main object of this work, with an interest in identifying the need for a new teaching/learning process and for a new university practice, in order to effectively improve an advanced academic formation. For this, some interviews have been conducted with teachers, students and the external community involved in extension actions in the period defined by the work, i.e., from 2008 to 2010. In this stage, it was observed that the academic work of university extension is essential to civic education. It was recognized too as a privileged space where university fulfills its social commitment towards society, as long as it joins scientific and popular knowledge having in view a new science and a new social order