Expectations of adolescents regarding the future

Gender stereotypes and roles constitute socially shared beliefs about how men and women should behave. It is based on the male/female body mark that boys and girls will be socialized differently through the socialization agents: boys in instrumentality and in the public sphere, and girls in expressiveness and in the private sphere, existing an overvaluation of the male stereotypes and roles in detriment of the female ones. The objective of this study is to analyse the existing gender stereotypes and roles of adolescents regarding their future in the private, family and domestic spheres, by finding out, through the discussion of opinions and future expectations, the stereotypes that adolescents present and how they are reflected in their future expectations, particularly when they are 30 years old. This is a qualitative study, conducted using the focus group technique with a semi-structured script of key questions. The participants were 53 adolescents (16 boys and 37 girls), with an average age of 12.76, distributed in 7 groups from 4 different entities, located in the municipality of Valongo.