Estudo comparativo das representações sociais da velhice feminina, qualidade de vida e covid-19 entre idosas brasileiras espanholas

Abstract

Aging is a complex process that involves significant physical, psychological and social changes. These changes are sensitive to socioeconomic, racial, cultural, gender and territorial demands. The COVID-19 pandemic has considerably intensified the challenges faced by the elderly population, amplifying existing challenges and exposing unique vulnerabilities related to female aging. Assim sendo, a presente pesquisa tem como objetivo geral comparar as representações sociais dos construtos Velhice Feminina, Qualidade de vida (QV) e Covid-19 entre mulheres idosas dos países Brasil e Espanha, através do aporte teórico-metodológico das Representações Sociais. The study is exploratory-descriptive, with a qualitative approach using a non-probabilistic and convenience sample. The research involved 51 elderly Brazilian women and 51 elderly Spanish women. To collect data, sociodemographic questionnaires, the Free Word Association Technique (TALP) and in-depth interviews were applied. The responses collected through the sociodemographic questionnaire will be processed in the IBM SPSS version 25.0 software, the interview data and the TALP responses will be submitted to the Iramuteq program. Study 1 aimed to analyze, through comparison, the Social Representations of elderly women from the countries Brazil and Spain regarding female old age. It was possible to identify that the elderly women's SR are anchored in perspectives such as Difficulties that are mentioned in a correlated way among the participants even with cultural and social differences in the countries studied; Dichotomy between gratitude for your life but also sadness for going through this phase; Quality of life, being analogous to family support, health and money as directly linked to well-being; and also aspects of negative understandings in both groups of elderly women about the physical, psychological and social repercussions of this stage of life. It is expected that this research can offer support in the development of strategies and implementation of improvements in psychosocial practices regarding the constructs of female old age, quality of life in female old age and COVID-19 in the countries studied, in order to provide theoretical-practical subsidies for social assistance, health and elderly women services. Study 2 aimed to compare, from the perspective of elderly women in Brazil and Spain, their social representations about the COVID-19 Pandemic. Participants mention that these countries resulted in different impacts and complications during and after the pandemic period, and may mention, above all, consequences in the social, political, economic and health spheres in general. Given the results obtained, it is possible to identify that they are organized into three distinct axes: (1) these women expressed their perceptions and impacts regarding the disease in a predominantly negative way; (2) they discussed the adverse effects on mental health, describing complications that reverberate in different aspects of their lives; and finally, (3) these elderly women maintained a hopeful perspective regarding the future, especially after the waves of COVID-19, such as the advancement of science in relation to the vaccine that helped in the impact of the disease on the human body, as well as faith which helped to strengthen this look of hope. In this aspect, it is hoped that this article can cooperate in the dissemination of scientifically proven information and can reach different areas that help to mitigate the impacts that were revealed from the perspective of this older woman. In Study 3, which proposed to comparatively study the Social Representations of Brazilian and Spanish elderly women regarding Quality of Life, it was identified that although some differences are notoriously indisputable in the countries Brazil and Spain as they are considered developing and developed, respectively , what was evident was that elderly women anchor their SR about QoL in issues related to health, social well-being and family support, sometimes bringing similar and sometimes different perspectives due to social, economic and cultural diferences. According to study 4, which was the Bilingual Booklet, it was intended to offer society tangible feedback on this work, informing these women about some difficulties and potentialities that may cross their path at this stage of life. In view of this, it was designed and developed based on the general results of this Master's Dissertation, with content taken from the speeches of the women participating in the research, as well as from scientifically proven bibliographical references on the topic.