Gender-based violence from the perspective of children: a thematic investigation

Abstract

Gender-based violence in childhood can be discussed in the face of gender inequality, identified in the social demarcation in toys, games, and creativity. Therefore, dialoguing with children on this subject stimulates critical awareness and protagonism, providing the resignification of discriminatory patterns, behaviors, and stereotypes based on gender. The objective of this article was to understand the perceptions of children between 8 and 11 years of age, of a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) about gender-based violence (GBV) during childhood. A thematic investigation was carried out with 32 children, anchored in Paulo Freire’s dialogical theory. For children, GBV is a manifestation of violence characterized by disrespect and multicausality. They also identified some strategies and actors for coping with the problem. Actions such as these enhance the critical posture by the articulation of popular health education in a participative and dialogical perspective.