title: Domestic violence against women: representations of health professionals.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  to analyze the representations about domestic violence against women, among health professionals of Family Health Units.
  
  
  METHODS
  qualitative study based on the Theory of Social Representations. Data were collected by means of evocations and interviews, treating them in the Ensemble de Programmes Pemettant L'Analyse des Evocations software - EVOC and content analysis.
  
  
  RESULTS
  nurses, physicians, nursing technicians and community health agents participated. The evocations were answered by 201 professionals and, of these, 64 were interviewed. The central core of this representation, comprised by the terms "aggression", "physical-aggression", "cowardice" and "lack of respect", which have negative connotations and were cited by interviewees. In the contrast zone, comprised by the terms "abuse", "abuse-power", "pain", "humiliation", "impunity", "suffering", "sadness" and "violence", two subgroups were identified. The first periphery contains the terms "fear", evoked most often, followed by "revolt", "low self-esteem" and "submission", and in the second periphery "acceptance" and "professional support".
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  this is a structured representation since it contains conceptual, imagetic and attitudinal elements. The subgroups were comprised by professionals working in the rural area and by those who had completed their professional training course in or after 2004. These presented a representation of violence different from the representation of the general group, although all demonstrated a negative connotation of this phenomenon.
authors.affiliation: Universidade Federal do Rio Grande, Rio Grande, RS, BR.
authors.forename: Vera Lúcia de Oliveira
authors.initials: VL
authors.lastname: Gomes
authors.affiliation: Universidade Federal do Rio Grande, Rio Grande, RS, BR.
authors.forename: Camila Daiane
authors.initials: CD
authors.lastname: Silva
authors.affiliation: Universidade do Estado do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, RJ, BR.
authors.forename: Denize Cristina
authors.initials: DC
authors.lastname: de Oliveira
authors.affiliation: Universidade Federal do Rio Grande, Rio Grande, RS, BR.
authors.forename: Daniele Ferreira
authors.initials: DF
authors.lastname: Acosta
authors.affiliation: Universidade Federal do Rio Grande, Rio Grande, RS, BR.
authors.forename: Cristiane Lopes
authors.initials: CL
authors.lastname: Amarijo
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D001291:Attitude of Health Personnel; D017579:Domestic Violence; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008875:Middle Aged; D055815:Young Adult