Social representations of poverty: an approach from the families backing of the family program of the Bio Bio province, VIII region, Chile

The purpose of this study was to get to know the social representations of poverty and/or people in poverty of professionals which work as family support within the Family programs. It is a quantitative study, complemented with qualitative aspects, with descriptive range, for which a survey was taken among the family supports of 13 of 14 districts of the Biobio province. The results and conclusions state that most social representations of poverty are related to a vision of absolute poverty, in which "lacks" and needs" prevail, and in a lower scale there are expressions such as "lack of opportunities" or "social exclusion". Not much difference is observed among the meanings associated to poverty and extreme poverty. In both cases, the representations refer to poor people more that to the poverty situation itself. Highlighted is the positive perception of the feasibility of "overcoming poverty" and recognition of skills of the people who helped to overcome the situation of poverty.