CHANGING FROM YOUNGSTER TO A WOMAN: A EXPERIENCE

Abstract

The inquiry tries to discover and analyse the beliefs, meaning and expressions of “turning out from youngster to woman", in a low income community, belonging to an urban area from Sao Paulo City, Brazil. Leininger's Diversity and Universality theory upon cultural care, was used as a theoretical foundation and the Etno-nursing as research method as well. Data collection was worked out considering the Participan! Observation Method, taken place over the context where the women lived. The inquiry included 14 women, being 3 of them, the key informan!. The way the women belonging to this culture perceive the process of "turning out from youngster to woman", became the basic knowledgment generator phase, which was used for the visualization concerning the specific care ways for this culture.