Guarda paterna e representa？？es sociais de paternidade e maternidade

the “new fatherhood” is one of the themes in studies about men’s condition and it is characterized by the improvement of the father’s participation in children’s daily care and the expression of affection in fathers’ relationship with their children. this study aimed to investigate social representations of fatherhood and motherhood of fathers who have children’s custody and live alone with them at least for one year. eleven men separated were interviewed about the following topics: personal data, social representations of fatherhood and motherhood, marital relationship, children’s custody, daily activities and evaluation. alceste software and content analysis were used to analyze the data. social representations elements of fatherhood were: responsibility and accompaniment, affectivity and friendship, orientations and correction, material provider, equilibrium and the same as materhood. materhood’s elements involves: biological aspects, being present, affectivity and friendship, the same as fatherhood, superior to fatherhood, not leaving children and equilibrium. in these representations it is possible to identify traditional elements of fatherhood (authority and provider) and materhood (biological aspects, affectivity and superiority). at the same time, these indicates the emergence of elements related to new fatherhood (involved and caretaker father and the materhood being the same as fatherhood).