This article investigated the topic of the promotion of family cohabitation as a learning process to build a culture of peace. The subject group consisted of ten couples with children of both genders, between the ages three to ten, students of an educational center located in the Great Metropolitan Area of Costa Rica. Regarding the main results, it was evidenced that the participant families comprehended cohabitation from concrete actions, and not from the interactional family dynamic in which it is built; therefore the majority of the cohabitation dimensions were overlooked. The factors that promote and inhibit cohabitation were exposed through the difficulties faced by the parental figures in the process of raising a child, which are uncertainty, exhaustion and frustration. Finally, the studied family group did not perceive itself as a protagonist social instance in the learning process of cohabitation, nor in the construction of a culture of peace.

cohabitation; family; upbringing; culture of peace; mediation; parental figures; Costa Rica