Young graffiter: Psico-social profile. Identity and Motivation

Abstract

This study investigated the psycho-social profile of adolescents involved in the practice of illegal graffiti (pichação). It refers to a subculture linked to hip hop movement, present in medium and large cities in Brazil. The objective of this study was to describe the cultural profile of adolescents involved in pichação and issues related to identity and motivation processes of these adolescents. In doing so, 32 subjects answered an inventory which approached psychological and socio-cultural aspects of this kind of graffiti. These adolescents were all males, with a mean age of 17.2 ± 2.6 years, living in outskirt areas of large cities. The interviews showed that such form of graffiti is related to marked identity processes and describes how such adolescents interact with their peers and leaders, as well as how they represent and deal with social general values and laws. Moreover the main motivations for those youths to participate in this transgressor activity were presented. Conclusion: The youths involved with pichação use such activity as a way to establish their identities and to confront the general society. These aspects were analyzed focusing on the identity building and its crises in the adolescence, according to Erik Erikson contributions. Moreover the implication of the contemporary market ideologies of dominant society in this adolescent subculture was analyzed in this process.