Organized Community Activity Participation and the Dynamic Roles of Neighborhood Violence and Gender among Latino Adolescents

Relative to their peers, Latino youth are underinvolved in organized community activities (e.g., Boys and Girls Club), and their experiences lack examination. This study employed a neighborhood case‐study approach to examine the experiences of Latino youth in a neighborhood with high levels of violence and their participation in organized community activities. Employing a cluster sampling design (Lohr, Sampling: Design and analysis. Pacific Grove, CA: Nelson Education, 2009), we used quantitative, spatial, and qualitative data to understand adolescents’ participation in organized community activities. Furthermore, to understand how adolescents from the same neighborhood may experience violence differently we examined gender differences. Those who participated in organized community activities witnessed more violence, regardless of gender. General violence (e.g., robberies, shootings) was dispersed throughout the neighborhood, but gender‐specific violence was concentrated along the main street of the neighborhood. In qualitative interviews, adolescents reported this concentration of violence a deterrent to their participation: sexual harassment for girls and gang intimidation for boys. Our findings highlight the unique experiences of youth in violent neighborhoods and the importance of examining differential constraints for those within the same neighborhood.     

Predicting first intercourse among urban early adolescent girls: The role of emotions

Little is known about how girls perceive their ongoing or future sexual experiences, especially the emotions that they associate with these experiences. This study examined how early adolescent girls characterise first intercourse experiences in terms of positive and negative emotions over a one-year period. A US sample of 162 girls (12–14 years), primarily Latina and Black, completed two interviews one year apart that assessed sexual cognitions, affect, and behaviour. Girls anticipated primarily negative emotions associated with first intercourse, but recalled primarily positive emotions for first and recent intercourse experiences. In addition, girls’ emotion scores proved more useful than two types of cognitions (intentions and perceived readiness) and pre-intercourse sexual experience in predicting transitions to intercourse over the one-year period.     

When “no” becomes “yes”: Why girls and women consent to unwanted sex

Recent investigations address a “gray area” on the sexual-violence spectrum—consent to sexual intercourse that is unwanted. This article reviews qualitative and quantitative investigations of adolescent girls' and young women's reasons for consenting to unwanted intercourse and provides a theoretical framework for understanding these experiences. Central to this theoretical perspective is gender-role socialization in the culture by which many girls internalize stereotyped beliefs about male sexual prerogatives and the importance of a heterosexual relationship to feminine identity. Also addressed are applications of this theoretical framework for prevention and education programs.     

Breaking the Silence Surrounding Female Adolescent Sexual Desire

Abstract

This review of the literature related to female adolescent sexual desire reveals that, in spite of interest by feminist scholars, actual discourse around sexual desire and bodily pleasure associated with female sexuality appears to be lacking for the majority of adolescent girls. In our culture females are the objects of male desire, hence the focus on attractiveness. Little attention has been paid to their embodiment, the inner sense of their own sexual desire. Sexual desire has traditionally been accepted as part of male sexual development and is associated with positive sexual identity for men. Researchers stress the importance of increasing sex-positive attitudes towards female sexual desire, in order to counter much of the shame and confusion experienced by females, especially during adolescence. The double standard is still being conveyed to young women through popular culture, parents, peers, and schools. Sex education primarily emphasizes the dangers of sex. The media stresses the importance of attractiveness and women as sex objects rather than agents of their own sexual desires. Researchers suggest that a young woman's ability to be conscientious about and fully present in her sexual experiences is correlated with her ability to act as an agent. The ability to make responsible and self-affirming sexual decisions is a crucial act of agency.     

HIV/AIDS communication among adolescents in psychiatric care and their parents.

The authors examined HIV/AIDS communication among 207 parent-adolescent dyads in psychiatric care to better understand the relationship between family communication and sexual risk behavior in an at-risk population. Dyads reported content and rated quality of family HIV/AIDS discussions, and adolescent sexual risk was assessed. Families discussed transmission, prevention, consequences, myths, and compassion. Parent-reported discussion of consequences was associated with greater sexual risk behavior, but only for girls. Higher quality communication reported by adolescents was associated with less sexual risk. Parents may send different messages about HIV/AIDS to sons versus daughters, and messages related to consequences may not effectively reduce risk among daughters. However, for boys and girls in psychiatric care, teaching parents how to discuss HIV/AIDS may promote safer sexual behavior.     

The Influence of Television on Adolescent Girls' Sexual Attitudes and Behaviour in a South African Setting

This study explored how television influences the sexual attitudes and behaviour of adolescent girls in a South African urban setting. A total of 4 adolescent girls participated (average age = 16 years old, range = 15–17 years old). Data was collected using in-depth interviews. Thematic content analysis (Neuman, 2006) was used for the data summarization. The results of the study suggest that television viewing influences the adolescent girls' sexual attitudes and behaviour towards permissiveness. Participants also indicated being influenced by parents and peers in their sexual attitudes.     

Sailing Against the Tide? Sustaining Sexual Abstinence Among Christian Youth in a University Setting in South Africa

This qualitative study sought to understand the perceptions and experiences of abstinence among young Christians in a University in South Africa. Willingness to adhere to Christian teachings of sexual chastity is the primary motivation for sexual abstinence while spiritual, mental and physical health benefits of abstinence as well as enforcement of Christian teachings by members and peers are secondary motivations that help sustain sexual abstinence. Sexual pressures come from desire to satisfy sexual urge, subtle coercion, peer pressure, momentary loss of self-control. There is need for multi-pronged interventions aimed at empowering Christian youth to deal with sources of sexual pressures.     

Fear in Adolescent Dating Relationships

The aims of this study were to assess fearful and aversive aspects of dating relationships among teens and to examine those experiences by gender. We examined both survey data and cognitive interviews with teens to understand how teens experience their dating relationships and how they interpret the meaning of the items in a fear measure modified for use with teens. We found that fearful and aversive dating situations are common in adolescent dating relationships. As teens move along the continuum from friendships to romantic involvement, both boys and girls experience the aggressive and coercive behaviors that sometimes accompany these new emotional and interpersonal situations.     

UNDERMINING AND CONSTRUCTING COHERENCE IN TRADITIONAL NARRATIVE PARADIGMS: CONTEMPORARY VIEWS

Using both images and metaphor proved an effective qualitative method in our study with adolescent girls who use crystal methamphetamine. The combination increased the depth of learning by inviting less calculated responses and the breadth of learning by allowing for consideration of societal and contextual dimensions of experience. In this article, we demonstrate how combining images and metaphors in qualitative inquiry can enable researchers to resist the tendency to distill complex experiences down to manageable forms. In so doing, we offer a contextualized perspective of how change may occur, thus reconceptualizing our roles as practitioners.     

What Is Sexual Empowerment? A Multidimensional and Process-Oriented Approach to Adolescent Girls’ Sexual Empowerment

Theorists disagree about how to define the concept of empowerment. This disagreement extends to discussions of adolescent girls’ sexual empowerment. Feminists struggle with whether sexual empowerment should be conceptualized as a subjective internal feeling of power and agency or an objective measure of power and control. Defining sexual empowerment as a subjective state may mistakenly equate feelings of agency with cultural and institutional power. Yet, a subjective definition of sexual empowerment is advantageous in that it validates girls’ own experiences and perceptions. This commentary argues that sexual empowerment might best be conceptualized as a continuous and multidimensional construct. This would allow for the recognition of sexual empowerment as a developmental process, and it would allow for the acknowledgement of ambivalent empowerment.     

Adolescent Girls’ Sexual Empowerment: Two Feminists Explore the Concept

Although all feminists tend to value empowered female sexuality, feminists often disagree, sometimes heatedly so, about the definition of and path to empowered sexuality among adolescent girls. In this theoretical paper, two feminists, who have previously expressed differing perspectives regarding adolescent girls’ sexual empowerment (Lamb 2010a, b; Peterson 2010), discuss their disagreements and attempt to find some common ground in their viewpoints on girls’ sexuality. A critical question related to sexual empowerment is whether empowerment includes a subjective sense of efficacy, desire, and pleasure. In other words, are girls sexually empowered if they feel that they are empowered? The authors identify three themes that make answering this question particularly challenging—age differences, exposure to sexualized media, and the pressure to please a partner. Despite these challenges, the authors identify several points of consensus, including agreeing that adequate sexuality education and media literacy education are vital to optimizing adolescent girls’ sexual empowerment.     

The Sociocultural Context of Sexually Diverse Women’s Sexual Desire

Women’s sexual desire is a complex, multifaceted phenomenon. According to the biopsychosocial model of female sexual function, a comprehensive understanding of women’s sexuality requires awareness of the presence of and interaction between biological, psychological, interpersonal, and sociocultural factors. Other sexuality scholars in the field have similarly stressed this perspective, emphasizing that sexual desire in particular is impacted by medical, relational, psychological, and sociocultural influences. Given the influence of sociocultural variables like sexism and heterosexism on women’s lives, we sought to understand the impact of the sociocultural context on sexual desire in 31 bisexual, lesbian, and heterosexual women. Women ranged in age from 20 to 69 and answered a number of questions related to their experience of sexual desire and the ways in which desire related to their sexual identity. The semi-structured interviews focused on women’s retrospective, subjective accounts of their experiences. Using a consensual qualitative research approach and thematic analysis, the interviews revealed four themes and seven subthemes: (1) minority stress (heterosexist discrimination, stigmatized identities, coming out, impact of visible/safe spaces); (2) gender expectations (gendered relationship expectations, gender binary impacts, body image); (3) religion; and (4) taboo and changing cultural times. Participant responses suggest that the sociocultural context can influence the sexual desire of diverse women, supporting both sexual desire exploration and suppression of desire expression by context. Practice and advocacy considerations include understanding of the impact of systems of privilege and oppression (e.g., sexism, heterosexism, racism) on women’s sexual desire experiences and opportunities for supporting diverse women’s sexual empowerment.     

Adolescent Girls and Their Mothers Talk About Experiences of Binge and Loss of Control Eating

Evidence suggests that adolescents’ experience of binge eating (BE) might differ in important ways from that of adults. Moreover, although BE appears more common in African American women than other disordered eating behaviors, little is known about the influence of cultural factors on this behavior in adolescents. The current investigation used qualitative methodology to examine the perceptions of White and African American adolescent girls and their mothers regarding experiences of binge and loss of control eating. Five focus groups were completed with 19 adolescent girls (aged 13–17, 58 % African American, 41 % White) who endorsed loss of control eating behaviors. Their mothers (N = 19) also completed separate, concurrent focus groups addressing food and eating behaviors. Responses to focus group questions were analyzed using thematic qualitative analysis. Adolescents’ awareness of their eating behaviors varied greatly. Girls reported some awareness of how emotions influence their eating behaviors, and described using food to achieve autonomy. Mothers evidenced awareness of their daughters’ problematic eating behaviors, the effects of emotions on eating for both their daughters and themselves, and sociocultural factors influencing diet. Data from these focus groups can inform the development of innovative interventions for adolescent girls engaging in loss of control eating.     

Everyday Victimization of Adolescent Girls by Boys: Sexual Harassment, Bullying or Aggression?

School-based sexual harassment of adolescent girls by boys appears commonplace, yet aggression and bullying studies rarely yield sexualized material. This qualitative Australian study with 72 14- to 15-year-olds and 7 teachers aimed to discover whether interviewer use of neutral language in gender-segregated focus groups and interviews would yield material indicating that the victimization of girls by boys is sexualized. Verbal and indirect victimization were reported to be everyday occurrences, and almost entirely sexual. Findings are discussed in the light of definitions of sexual harassment, bullying and aggression. It is concluded that the term “sexual bullying” appropriately captures the gendered power structure underlying these behaviors. As such, they need to be understood, and become visible, more broadly than in terms of individual pathology.     

A Qualitative Examination of the Relationship Between Body Image and Sexual Behavior: Perceptions from Latina and African American Adolescent Girls and Their Maternal Caregivers

Although prior work suggests that how adolescent girls feel about their body is associated with their sexual behavior, we have less insight into the reasons why. We conducted semi-structured interviews with 25 African American adolescent girls (11–14 years of age), 18 Latina adolescents (14–17 years of age), and their maternal caregivers to explore why this association may exist. Both adolescent girls and their maternal caregivers were asked “Who is more likely to have sex, a girl who likes the way her body looks or a girl who doesn’t like the way her body looks?” A similar question was asked about condom use. Interviews were digitally recorded, transcribed, and coded for emergent themes using thematic analysis. Participants’ responded that both girls with a positive body image and those with a negative body image may be likely to have sex because of self- and body-esteem. Two sub-themes emerged that further explained why low self- and body-esteem mattered for girls who have a negative perception of their body: (a) feeling appreciated (b) easily persuaded. Most participants noted that girls with a positive body image perception would be more likely to use condoms. Emergent themes for using condoms were: (a) pregnancy/STI protection; and (b) body preservation. Our findings have implications for empirically exploring the pathways through which body image perceptions relate to adolescent sexual behaviors, and the possibility that universal prevention programs may not resonate similarly for all adolescent girls.     

“I’m not a lesbian; I’m just a freak”: A Pilot Study of the Experiences of Women in Assumed-Monogamous Other-Sex Unions Seeking Secret Same-Sex Encounters Online,their Negotiation of Sexual Desire,and Meaning-Making of Sexual Identity

This pilot study looked to examine the experiences of women who are “undercover,” the meaning-making of their sexual identity, how they came to negotiate their same-sex sexual desires alongside their primary other-sex unions, and their experience of a secret, compartmentalized life. The study sought to understand their experiences as well as their meaning-making in the course of maintaining a public heterosexual persona while balancing their secret desire for sex with women. The thirty-four women in this study report lifelong incidence of attraction to and encounters with other women as well as men. They are not transitioning toward a lesbian identity nor experiencing fluidity; rather, clandestine encounters are part of an ongoing means to negotiate their opposite-sex marriages. For them, our culture’s limited notions of sexual identity are less than useful. It was important to their self-concept that their sexuality be understood in terms of its intensity and their desire for frequency and diversity of acts. They defined themselves on their own terms and by their sexual personalities and inclination toward what they considered “hypersexuality” or “freakiness.” Despite conventional ideas that women are emotionally driven in their extra-relational affairs and need to “fall in love” to participate in extra-relational sexual activity, all of the women were clear in their desire to limit their association with their same-sex partners to sexual encounters only.     

Personal Control, Self-Efficacy in Sexual Negotiation, and Contraceptive Risk among Adolescents: The Role of Gender

Adolescents’ sexual decision making is shaped by normative ideas about “appropriate” sexual roles for women and men; consequently, the motivation and ability to engage in safer sex may be different for adolescent girls and boys. The aim of this study was to explore how social–psychological resources influence the behavior of girls and boys within the highly gendered and inequitable domain of sexual relationships. I used data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health) to examine whether personal control and self-efficacy in sexual negotiation are associated with contraceptive risk (engaging in sexual intercourse or not using condoms) among adolescents and whether these associations differ for adolescent boys and girls. Results indicate that personal control and self-efficacy in sexual negotiation are significantly associated with safer sex behavior, and are often more important for girls than for boys in predicting contraceptive risk.     

Psychosocial factors associated with reports of physical dating violence among U.S. adolescent females

The present study, based upon the national 2005 Youth Risk Behavior Survey of U.S. high school students, provides the most current and representative data on dating violence among adolescent females (N = 7,179). The dependent variable was physical dating violence. The independent variables included four dimensions: violence, suicide, substance use, and sexual risk behavior. Unadjusted odds ratios (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CI), were examined followed by multivariate logistic regression analyses, which included all significant independent variables from the bivariate analyses. Adjusted OR and 95% CI were computed to assess the significance of the relationships. In terms of prevalence, 10.3% of female adolescents reported experiencing physical dating violence. Black girls (OR = 1.47) and girls who reported sad/hopeless feelings (OR = 1.42) considered suicide (OR = 1.55), engaged in physical fighting (OR = 2.17), had recent sexual partners (OR = 2.10), or had unprotected sexual intercourse (OR = 1.70) were more likely to report physical dating violence. These findings suggest dating violence against adolescent females is widespread and associated with a host of other risk factors that deserve further attention through longitudinal research and intervention efforts.