The Perspectives of Children on Leisure Constraints in the Context of Pandemic Isolation

Resumo

The COVID-19 pandemic has imposed an unparalleled confinement on everyone, directly affecting family dynamics and emphasizing the need to understand how these restrictions alter people’s routines. This research aims to identify children’s perspectives and interests that may be affected by the restrictions on the routine of the Brazilian population aged 7 to 12 years, focusing on the ongoing situation imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic in Brazil. Recognizing children as active subjects capable of expressing their needs and anxieties, we conducted research that collected primary data directly from these subjects. We carried out an iconographic-based content analysis, which indicates that the pandemic has directly impacted the leisure activities of the analyzed children, particularly those that need to be performed outside the home and collectively, affecting their socialization. The situation imposed on us leads us to reflect on the need for effective actions in the educational field to allow children to regain their free spaces and times to engage in various leisure activities, especially those aimed at sociability.