Abstract
This article aims to analyze the implications of the experiences of young people who are in compliance with socio-educational measures for the construction of their life projects. This study is supported by Vygotsky’s Historical-Cultural Theory. Ten young people between the ages of 15 and 17 who underwent socio-educational measures with freedom restraint in a municipality of Paraíba participated in the study. An interview was used and data were submitted to Content Thematic Analysis, revealing the categories: activities carried out in the daily life while complying with the socio-educational measure, family participation, youth relations with professionals, significant experiences during the socio-educational measure, and plans for the future. Data showed that young people see their life projects from the expectation of completing their studies, getting their professional formation and insertion, returning to family life and constituting their own family. However, the socio-educational institutions do not guarantee these elements sufficiently to promote the development and autonomy of young people, through a set of actions articulated and based on a pedagogical function. These still focus their activities on bureaucratic procedures and punitive practices. It is considered that the units of socio-educational measures should guide their interventions in the realization of the socio-education of youth from the perspective of the guarantee of rights and the offer of actions that promote the projects of life.
Youth; Life project; Socio-educational measures