An exploration of young ethnic minority males' beliefs about romantic relationships

"I connect with the ringleader:" health professionals' perspectives on promoting the sexual health of adolescent males

In-depth interviews with nine professionals in adolescent health were used to identify perceived barriers, facilitators, and innovative strategies to reach, engage, and serve adolescent males for sexual and reproductive health care. Barriers included stigma, embarrassment, and lack of social norms around sexually transmitted infection (STI) testing for men. Facilitators included crisis situations and partner support. Clinic-based approaches to reach and engage young men included developing authentic staff-youth engagement and ensuring that access to services is easy and appealing. To be innovative, providers should become part of the real-world context of adolescent males. Technology (e.g., text messaging) and social media can be utilized to target and eliminate barriers to health care among young men.

South African Adolescents’ Constructions of Intimacy in Romantic Relationships

Localized understandings of adolescent romantic relationships are needed to expand our knowledge of the diversity of adolescent romantic experiences and to challenge negative discourses of adolescent heterosexual relationships. This study explored the constructions of intimacy of 20 adolescent men and women in romantic relationships from one low-income community in the Western Cape Province of South Africa. Using Charmaz’s constructivist grounded theory method, we found that our participants reproduced dominant romantic and gender discourses in their intimacy constructions within a community context of limited and limiting discourses. We argue that they could benefit from alternative discourses, more opportunities to interact privately and intimately with their partners, and to reflect on and articulate their romantic relationship experiences.