Scripts of Sexual Desire and Danger in US and Dutch Teen Girl Magazines: A Cross-National Content Analysis

The aim of this comparative quantitative content analysis was to investigate how US and Dutch teen girl magazines cover sexual desire (i.e., sexual wanting, and pleasure) and sexual danger (i.e., sexual risk, and negative physical/health consequences of sex). Relying on the sexual scripts framework and Hofstede’s cultural dimension of masculinity/femininity, we examined (a) how the coverage varied for boys and girls, (b) how it differed between the United States and the Netherlands, and (c) how gender differences varied by country. The sample comprised 627 sex-related feature stories from all 2006–2008 issues of three US (i.e., Seventeen, CosmoGirl! United States edition, and Teen) and three Dutch teen girl magazines (i.e., Fancy, CosmoGirl! Netherlands edition, and Girlz!). Overall, sexual wanting occurred more frequently in the US magazines than in the Dutch magazines. In the US coverage, boys’ sexual wanting received more attention than girls’ sexual wanting, whereas in the Dutch coverage sexual wanting was depicted equally often for boys and girls. The depiction of sexual pleasure did not vary by gender in either country, but was generally more visible in the Dutch magazines than in the US magazines. Sexual risks and the negative consequences of sex were associated with girls more than with boys, and were primarily depicted in the US magazines rather than in the Dutch magazines

Desafios da contracepção juvenil: interseções entre gênero, sexualidade e saúde Challenges of youth contraception: intersections between gender, sexuality and health

Este artigo aborda, sob uma perspectiva socioantropológica, os desafios postos aos jovens na gestão da vida afetivo-sexual, no que tange à prevenção de gravidez imprevista. Discute algumas dificuldades por eles encontradas no manejo da contracepção, no decorrer de suas trajetórias afetivo-sexuais, identificando situações propensas à não-utilização de métodos anticonceptivos (MAC). Trata-se de pesquisa qualitativa, cujo material empírico agrupa 73 entrevistas em profundidade, com jovens de ambos os sexos, de 18 a 24 anos de idade, provenientes de três capitais do país (Salvador, Rio de Janeiro e Porto Alegre) e de dois segmentos sociais (popular e médio), que passaram por ao menos um episódio de gravidez na adolescência. A análise temática dos dados reúne elementos afins e recorrentes nas narrativas juvenis, além dos contrastes de gênero e classe social. Os resultados relativos às dificuldades dos jovens de usar continuamente os MAC foram agrupados em eixos temáticos: contexto do relacionamento; relação com a família no que tange à sexualidade; efeitos colaterais dos métodos hormonais; descuido com a contracepção; dificuldades dos serviços de saúde; “falha” dos MAC; forte concepção da paternidade nos segmentos populares; uso de preservativo com parceiras “desconhecidas”; uso de coito interrompido, sem conhecimento do ciclo menstrual da parceira.<br>This paper shows, from a social anthropological perspective, the challenges faced by young people in managing their sexual and affective lives, when it comes to preventing unexpected pregnancy. It aims to discuss some of the difficulties young people have when dealing with contraception along their sexual and affective lives and also to identify circumstances in which they tend not to use contraceptive methods. A qualitative research is presented, in which empirical data consists of 73 in-depth interviews with young people of both sex, with age ranging from 18 to 24, living in three state capitals in Brazil (Salvador, Rio de Janeiro, Porto Alegre), and inserted in two social segments (popular and intermediate), who went through at least one experience of teenage pregnancy. A thematic analysis of data was adopted in order to assemble similar and repeated elements in the testimonies of the young people interviewed as well as to assemble the contrasts of gender and social segments. Results that reveal the difficulties of young people in adopting a continued use of contraceptive methods were listed according to the following themes: relationship context; relationship with the family regarding sexuality; side effects of hormonal anticonceptive methods; negligence with contraception; problems with health services; “failure” of contraceptive methods; a strong sense of fatherhood found in the popular segments; use of condoms with “unknown” female partners; withdrawal with no knowledge of the partner menstrual cycle

Perceived realism moderates the relation between sexualized media consumption and permissive sexual attitudes in Dutch adolescents

This study examined whether the development of sexualized media consumption and permissive sexual attitudes would be more strongly interrelated when adolescents perceived sexualized media images as highly realistic. We used data from a three-wave longitudinal sample of 444 Dutch adolescents aged 13-16 years at baseline. Results from parallel process latent growth modeling multigroup analyses showed that higher initial levels of sexualized media consumption were associated with higher initial level of permissive sexual attitudes. Moreover, increases of sexualized media consumption over time were associated with increases of permissive sexual attitudes over time. Considering the moderation by perceived realism, we found these effects only for those who perceived sexualized media as more realistic. Findings for male and female adolescents were similar except for the relations between initial levels and subsequent development. Among male adolescents who perceived sexualized media images to be realistic, higher initial levels of permissive sexual attitudes were related to subsequent less rapid development of sexualized media consumption. For male adolescents who perceived sexualized media to be less realistic, higher initial levels of sexualized media consumption were related to a subsequent less rapid development of permissive sexual attitudes. These relations were not found for female adolescents. Overall, our results suggest that, in male and female adolescents, those with a high level of perceived realism showed a correlated development of sexualized media consumption and permissive sexual attitudes. These findings point to a need for extended information on how to guide adolescents in interpreting and handling sexualized media in everyday life