Saúde mental: histórias de vida de licenciandas em química da UTFPR - Londrina

Abstract

Throughout my graduation and, in particular, in the pandemic context we are in, I have noticed that university students report impacts of university life on their mental health. Studies indicate that university women are increasingly exposed to stressful challenges and that these are the possible causes for the worsening of their mental health. Thus, the objective of this work was to listen to two undergraduate students in Chemistry from the Universidade Tecnológica Federal do Paraná, Londrina campus, to open a field of speech-listening in the lives of these women and allow the (self) reflection of their formative processes and their relationship with their mental health as a way to seek the possibilities of thinking about self-care. For this, the narratives of life stories were used as a methodological instrument and the listening of the licensees, which took place remotely with the help of a meeting platform, were guided by a semi-structured script composed of twelve questions. The narratives produced were analyzed under the inspiration of the content analysis proposed by Bardin, based on four categories that emerged from a previously carried out state-of-the-art bibliographic survey: a) perceptions of the undergraduates about the work and academic environments; b) identity permeated by Higher Education; c) Mental health as a care practice and; d) the narration of sensations. When giving voice to these undergraduates, I could see that mental health is crossed by experiences inside and outside higher education, especially due to the overload and the relationships that are established within the course. In addition, I was able to notice, from the reports, how the teaching identity is created and crossed by aspects related to mental health. I believe that the act of listening to the stories of these licensees is a good resource to investigate and understand during their training processes the marks left in these individuals in order to understand how these marks contribute to a critical-reflexive perspective on themselves. Finally, as they are students of a degree course in Chemistry, it was possible to understand the female formative processes and offer subsidies to look at chemical curricula and their relationship with mental health.