Governing the souls of young women: exploring the perspectives of mothers on parenting in the age of sexualisation

The sexualisation of young women has emerged as a growing concern within contemporary western cultures. This has provoked adult anxieties that young women are growing up too fast by adopting inappropriate sexual practices and subjectivities. Psychological discourses have dominated, which position sexualisation as a corrupting force that infects the ‘true self’ of young women, so they develop in abnormal ways. This in turn allows psychological practices to govern how to parent against sexualisation within families. To explore this further, six mothers each with daughters aged between 8 and 12 took part in one to one semi-structured interviews designed to explore how they conceptualised and parented against the early sexualisation of young women. A Foucauldian inspired discourse analysis was employed, which suggested that the mother's talk was situated within a psychological discourse. This enabled sexualisation to be positioned as a corrupting force that disrupted the natural development of young women through deviant bodily practices (e.g. consuming sexualised goods), which prevented them from becoming their ‘true self’. Through the disciplinary gaze of psychology, class inequalities were reproduced where working class families were construed as ‘chavs’ who were bad parents and a site of contagion for sexualisation.     

Everyday worlds of young refugees in London

This article examines the everyday lives of a sample of young refugees living in London, based on a study of the social roles and social networks of refugee children undertaken under the ESRC Children 5–16 Programme. It draws on findings from a survey of refugee and non-refugee children aged between 11 and 14 in two London schools, complemented by data from in-depth interviews with refugee children. The article focuses on the children's responsibilities towards home and family, friendships, and leisure activities. It highlights the experiences of the refugee children in the sample, and explores some gender differences between the social lives of refugee boys and girls, and between the lives of refugee children and those of their non-refugee peers.     

‘I have the jab so I can't be blamed for getting pregnant’: Contraception and women with learning disabilities

The aim of this research was to investigate whether, and to what extent, women with learning disabilities were enabled to exercise choice and control when it came to their use of contraception. Semi-structured in-depth interviews were conducted with 23 women with learning disabilities in the UK to explore these issues. Findings suggest that most women with learning disabilities did not make their own decisions and some of those who did, found their choices constrained by various factors, such as their young age, fears of losing their service, and previous traumatic experiences. The over-use of Depo-Provera is discussed, as are the common practices of giving contraception to women who are not sexually active and those whose fertility has declined naturally due to their age. The factors which lead to women's relative lack of autonomy are explored.     

Chapter 4: Adult Descriptions of Public Achievement

SUMMARY

Adult volunteers who work as experiential educators in Public Achievement (PA) told us about their experiences, and we contrasted these with the stated aims of Public Achievement, young peoples' experiences, and what it is like to be an adult volunteer. PA coaches reflected that there was a significant disjuncture between the official aims of PA and their lived experiences working with youth. Even though this was a source of frustration, PA coaches did come to have personally meaningful experiences working with youth, and this provoked reflection on their own understanding of citizenship, democracy, and public work.     

Constructions of Deportability in Sweden. Refused Asylum Seekers’ Experiences in Relation to Gender,Family Life,and Reproduction

Drawing on ethnographic material, this article examines how the experiences of refused asylum seekers in Sweden are shaped by migration policies, welfare policies, and gender norms. The article develops a feminist account of deportability to examine some gendered and reproductive aspects of everyday experiences of seeking asylum in Sweden. Focusing on the interview accounts of one heterosexual couple and one woman from Kosovo, I explore how their experiences are formed by the refusal of asylum claims in cases of sexual violence and/or their relationship and parental status. The analysis reflects on the way in which the specific legislative situation in the time period in which these interviews were made led to a privileging of families with children above single migrants and/or couples without children. It also reflects on how experiences of deportability clash dramatically with the idea of Sweden as a women-friendly welfare state.     

Speaking ‘unspeakable things’: documenting digital feminist responses to rape culture

Abstract

This paper examines the ways in which girls and women are using digital media platforms to challenge the rape culture they experience in their everyday lives; including street harassment, sexual assault, and the policing of the body and clothing in school settings. Focusing on three international cases, including the anti-street harassment site Hollaback!, the hashtag #BeenRapedNeverReported, and interviews with teenage Twitter activists, the paper asks: What experiences of harassment, misogyny and rape culture are girls and women responding to? How are girls and women using digital media technologies to document experiences of sexual violence, harassment, and sexism? And, why are girls and women choosing to mobilize digital media technologies in such a way? Employing an approach that includes ethnographic methods such as semi-structured interviews, content analysis, discursive textual analysis, and affect theories, we detail a range of ways that women and girls are using social media platforms to speak about, and thus make visible, experiences of rape culture. We argue that this digital mediation enables new connections previously unavailable to girls and women, allowing them to redraw the boundaries between themselves and others.     

Rural women migrant returnees in contemporary China

This essay focuses on the experiences of female returnees in rural–urban migration in contemporary China. Based on in-depth interviews with women migrants, returnees, their family members, friends and fellow villagers in both sending and receiving areas, the research examines rural migrant women's return migration process. It investigates rural migrant women's decision-making in the process, the ways women returnees construct their lives in the countryside, their identity negotiation as returnees and the impact of patriarchy on women's experiences of the return and resettlement process. The author argues that despite women's active involvement in migration and the ‘empowerment and agency’ gained through migration, the patriarchal power relations within rural households remain intact and continue to shape rural female returnees' life in their villages.     

Change and Continuation: Masculinity,Driving, and Disability in the Lives of “Young Problem Drivers” in the Aftermath of Severe Road Traffic Accidents

ABSTRACT

In research on traffic injury prevention, young male drivers willing to take risks are known as “young problem drivers” and have been identified as the greatest road safety challenge. This intersectional study draws on interviews and participant observation, and employs a masculinity perspective to explore how 12 young, male drivers who were injured in severe accidents assess driving after their accidents and ways in which they construct their identities as disabled men. While the participants cited their accidents as a turning point that prompted a change in their attitudes and practices regarding driving, they often continued to engage in deviant driving practices, especially speeding. In addition, the men tended to distance themselves from the social category of disability. We propose that the field of traffic injury prevention would benefit from supplementing the biological approach in the research literature with cultural perspectives on the internal logics and prevailing masculinity discourses that guide the choices of young, male drivers. Also, we argue that the men’s negotiation of disability illustrates the stigma still attached to the social category of disability.     

Iranian women's pathways to imprisonment

Using official data and interviews with 101 women in Evin prison, Tehran, this article explores prisoners' pathways to incarceration. The concept of “intersection” is used to help understand how traversing and diverging networks of power position women in ways that encourage their criminal actions, criminalization, and contribute toward their imprisonment. The term also highlights points of overlap and distinction between Iranian and Western women's experiences. Importantly, it encourages us to consider the global context of criminal justice.     

“My Kids,They Safe.”: Lived Experiences of Parents Receiving Child Neglect Allegations

Abstract

This study aims to explore parents’ lived experiences of receiving child neglect allegations and how they make sense of these experiences. The sample consists of parents who participated in a family preservation program following allegations of child neglect. Semi-structured interviews were conducted and analyzed using interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA). The findings suggest that parents resist neglect allegations, both by denial and minimization, partly due to their lack of clear understanding of what constitutes child neglect. Further, parents in this study tended to be reactive to meanings ascribed to the label of child neglect rather than the allegations per se. They seemed to experience internal conflict between their positive evaluations of their own parenting and what their neglect allegations might imply about their parenting. Parents also experienced emotional distress, such as concern about social stigma and fear of losing their parental rights, as they tried to make sense of their current situations. Suggested implications for practice include exploring parents’ subjective understanding of their allegations and considering their unique familial and sociocultural contexts from the outset of their involvement with child protective services (CPS) in order to build a collaborative working alliance.     

High School Context,Heterosexual Scripts,and Young Women’s Sexual Development

Adolescence is a critical period for sexual development, and previous research demonstrates that school cultures play an important role in shaping adolescent sexual behavior. However, little is known about the role of school context for developing sexual attitudes and sexual sense of self. This study explores how sexual cultures that emerge within high schools shape the sexual development of young women during the transition to adulthood. Using three waves of data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent to Adult Health, a sample of 9th to 12th graders in U.S. schools in 1994–1995 who were surveyed in 1996 and in 2001 when they were 20 to 26 years old (N?=?1,017), this study measures school sexual cultures using the aggregated sexual beliefs and behaviors of students within the school. Multilevel analyses are used to explore the association between these school sexual cultures and young women’s sexual attitudes (perceived obstacles to using birth control, guilt and shame about sex, and expectations of sexual pleasure) in adolescence and their sexual experiences (equal initiation of sex with partner and frequent orgasm with partner) in adulthood. Overall, the results suggest that schools play an important role in young women’s developing attitudes toward sex and contraception. High school sexual cultures are also associated with young women’s sexual behavior in adult heterosexual relationships, as young women who attended schools with students who had higher levels of religious attendance or guilt and shame about sex were less likely to report being an equal initiator in their adult relationships. However, the relatively small impact of high school sexual cultures on young women’s sexual experiences in adulthood, particularly in terms of sexual pleasure, suggests that more proximal contexts and relationships may play a more significant role in shaping their current sexual behaviors.     

Changing Images in Books for Young People

Literature for young people has changed greatly since Severzteeiztlz Suinrner and Fifreerz were published. Society has changed greatly, too, in the last few decades. Many modern books reflect society's involvement with drugs, sex, alcohol, and violence. Teenagers will read a great variety of stories and view different images of themselves and their times.     

The Same Old Song?—Stability and Change in Relationship Schemas from Adolescence to Young Adulthood

Relationship schemas are core elements of personality that guide interpersonal functioning. The aim of this study is to examine stability and change in relationship schemas across two developmental epochs—adolescence and young adulthood—in the stories that people tell about their interactions with others. Using the Core Conflictual Relationship Theme Method, relationship themes were coded from semistructured interviews conducted in adolescence and again at age 25. The sample consisted of 40 participants in a longitudinal study of adolescent and young adult psychological development. There was considerable stability in the frequency with which particular themes were expressed in the narratives of adolescents and young adults. Significant changes from adolescence to young adulthood included a decrease in the perception of others as rejecting and of the self as opposing others. Young adults saw themselves and others more positively, and used a broader repertoire of themes in their relationship narratives than they had as adolescents. The basic continuity and particular changes in relationship schemas found in this study are consistent with knowledge about the adolescent-to-young-adult transition derived from other empirical and clinical findings. Relationship schemas may be rich units of study for learning about the development of interpersonal functioning.     

Gender and the transition from school to work in belfast

This article is based on interviews carried out in 1991 with 122 school pupils between the ages of 15 and 18 from a Catholic working-class area characterised by high, long-term unemployment located in Belfast. It includes further research carried out in 1998. The article focuses on three main aspects of young people's lives: their intended career aspirations, their involvement in term-time employment while at school and their participation in paid work within the household. The article suggests that the transition from school to work plays a crucial role in the reproduction of gender relations. The article demonstrates the ways in which young people at times accept and at other times challenge taken-for-granted assumptions regarding traditional gender stereotypes.     

The impact of gay friendly cultures on religious expression: a study of inclusive attitudes and behaviours among religious adolescent American male athletes

Abstract

This article investigates the way attitudes inclusive of homosexuality have proliferated among 11 high school athletes on 1 sporting team, despite those athletes representing various beliefs. Utilizing an in-depth, six-question interview schedule, as well as Huber’s centrality of religion scale (CRS-10), the respondents’ varied religious backgrounds, attitudes towards homosexuality and religiosity are discerned via semi-structured interviews. Results show that these young men reconcile their church’s stances with their own inclusive beliefs, reported ostensibly inclusive environments within their church communities, and articulated their belief in equality through secular discourse. As church communities in inclusive locales deemphasize anti-gay principles and posture inclusivity, young people may maintain religious identities as a function of secularization as declining religious authority. Finally, I discuss the relationship between inclusive masculinities, religiosity and secularization; in doing so, I explore mechanisms by which dominant cultural narratives (in this case, the acceptance of homosexuality) might transform religious expression and religious institutions.     

Adolescent mothers' knowledge of child development and expectations for their own infants

Adolescent mothers of 8- to 14-month-old infants gave fewer correct responses on the Developmental Milestones Survey (DMS) and were less accurate in predicting whether or not their infants would pass Bayley items than adult mothers of same-aged infants. Adolescent mothers were more likely to underestimate their infant's performance if the mothers received lower scores on the DMS, especially if they were likely to guess too young an age when they missed DMS items. Adult mothers, on the other hand, were more likely to underestimate their infant's performance if the mothers were likely to guess too old an age when they missed DMS items. Some adolescent mothers thus expect too little too late from their own infant and too much too soon from the average infant. These mothers may fail to encourage their infant's development and may perceive their infant as less competent than other infants because of these expectations.This article is based on a master's thesis completed by the second author. An earlier version of these findings was presented at the meeting of the Society for Research in Child Development, New Orleans, Louisiana, March 1993.Received Ph.D., from Michigan State University. Research interests include adults' perceptions of infants and infant emotional regulation.Received M.A. from West Virginia University. Research interests include adolescent parenting and infant social development.     

Coping Alone: Examining the Prospects of Adolescent Victims of Child Abuse Placed in Foster Care

The ability of a young person to cope effectively with stressful life events appears to be associated with their previous experiences and relationships. Young people in foster care who have histories of child abuse, therefore, may find they cannot cope effectively with the situation they find themselves in. This paper attempts to highlight the problems they face. A group of 21 young people were interviewed and were asked to complete the Frydenberg and Lewis Adolescent Coping Scales. Their social workers provided information on their past history both in care and prior to coming in to care. It emerged that the young people who had experienced physical and/or sexual abuse were significantly (p < 0.02) more likely to be/have been involved in problem, or Crisis, foster placements. Additionally these young people displayed less adaptive coping strategies than the young people who had not been abused. The most significant differences indicated that the victims of abuse were more likely to try and cope with stressful situations by themselves, while the other foster adolescents were significantly (p < 0.004) more likely to find support from their friends. Case studies, with reference to the teenager's own accounts, help to illustrate how a history of abuse can complicate the already difficult fostering processes, and can also affect the long-term coping abilities of the victims. The consequences of these issues are discussed.     

Youth participation informing care in hospital settings

Abstract

In this article, we use an ecocultural framework to understand young people’s experiences of the care provided by a specialist children’s hospital. This framework conceptualizes hospital culture as situated and embodied rather than separate from people and practices. Young people’s responses, gathered during a one-day forum at the hospital, suggest ways in which a hospital can respond to them not just as individual bodies but also as members of the families and peer groups who form their broader web of care. Their input highlights the importance of consulting young people about the operations of health services themselves, not just about the patient-medico relationships that they experience whilst using a service.     

“Second Generation” Voices: Queer Youth with Lesbian/Bisexual Mothers

Research on the experiences of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) youth with LGBTQ parents is absent in the social science literature. The present qualitative, exploratory study utilized a social constructionist and queer theoretical lens through which to explore the sexual/gender identity formation and disclosure experiences of 18 LGBTQ young adults with lesbian/bisexual mothers. Findings suggest that LGBTQ parents may have a uniquely positive influence on their LGBTQ children in regard to their sexual and gender identity development. However, some participants reported perceiving societal scrutiny related to their mothers’ lesbian/bisexual identities and, thus, felt pressure to be heterosexual and gender-conforming. Furthermore, some participants did not necessarily utilize or view their lesbian/bisexual mothers as sources of support in relation to their own sexual/gender identity formation. While much more research is needed that examines the experiences of LGBTQ children with LGBTQ parents, this study represents a first step in addressing the existing literature gap.     

“He would know,but i just have a feeling”: gender and oral history1

Abstract

While feminist historians have long used oral history, and continue to revise the ways oral sources can be employed, historians of masculinities have been slow to embrace new approaches to oral history. Using interviews conducted with women and men for a community study, this article suggests that a gendered, relational reading of oral history is instructive, not just in showing how different men and women's experiences have been, but also how their memories have been shaped by prevailing ideas of gender-appropriate behaviour and values. This raises the issue of the form as well as the content of oral history being gendered.