摘要：The objective was to identify the elements and the organization of
the social representations about the water of adolescents and
family parents, and to describe differences among the points of view of the gender of the studied groups. The methodology was
structural focus of the social representations: it was used the
method associative of free listing and the paired comparison. The
participants were adolescent and the family parents. The results
showed differences according to the group age of adscription and
to gender point of view. The adolescents show a great concern
about the use and consumption practices of the water. The family
parents have a more positive vision about the problems of water
use and consumption. About of the gender the women show more
variety of words around the concept of the water.
关键词：Water, social representations, environmental health.
