Lesch Elmien, Kruger Lou-Marie
Department of Psychology, Stellenbosch University, Private Bag X1, Matieland 7602, South Africa.
Soc Sci Med. 2005 Sep;61(5):1072-82. doi: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2005.01.005. Epub 2005 Mar 2.
Statistics indicate that sexual health problems like HIV/AIDS and teenage pregnancies are prevalent among young South African low-income women. To improve the effectiveness of preventative programmes for adolescents it is important to focus on adolescents' own understanding and experience of their sexual behaviour within the contexts in which it occurs. Female adolescents' experiences of their own sexuality are shaped by a range of contexts: from the very specific context of their intimate relationships to the broader contexts of gender, ethnicity and social class. It is therefore imperative to adopt a research approach that stratifies groups and develops interventions that are based on the needs, interests, sexual beliefs and behaviours of specific communities rather than developing general educational messages. The current paper is part of a larger study exploring female adolescent sexuality in a South African low-income rural coloured community. Twenty-five adolescent coloured women aged 14-18 years were interviewed about how they viewed their sexuality. The grounded theory analysis indicated that the participants demonstrated a limited sense of sexual agency in these constructions of their sexuality. The mothers of these young women were powerful agents in the young womens' constructions of their own sexuality and they unintentionally contributed to their daughters' limited sense of sexual agency. Mothers presented sex as a dangerous activity to their daughters. This discourse of sex as danger contributed towards a mutual understanding that sex should not be talked about. Daughters' deception of their mothers about their sexual activity maintained mother-daughter connections, but left them without an interactional space where they could talk freely to their mothers about sexuality.
统计数据表明，诸如艾滋病毒/艾滋病和少女怀孕等性健康问题在南非低收入年轻女性中普遍存在。为提高青少年预防项目的有效性，重要的是关注青少年在其性行为发生背景下对自身性行为的理解和体验。女性青少年对自身性取向的体验受到一系列背景因素的影响：从亲密关系的非常具体的背景到性别、种族和社会阶层等更广泛的背景。因此，必须采用一种研究方法，对群体进行分层，并根据特定社区的需求、兴趣、性观念和行为制定干预措施，而不是制定一般性的教育信息。本文是一项更大规模研究的一部分，该研究探索南非低收入农村有色人种社区的女性青少年性行为。对25名年龄在14至18岁之间的有色人种青少年女性进行了访谈，询问她们如何看待自己的性行为。扎根理论分析表明，参与者在这些性取向的建构中表现出有限的性自主意识。这些年轻女性的母亲在女儿对自身性取向的建构中是强大的影响因素，她们无意中导致了女儿有限的性自主意识。母亲们将性行为描述为对女儿来说危险的活动。这种将性视为危险的话语促成了一种共识，即性不应该被谈论。女儿们在性活动方面对母亲的欺骗维持了母女关系，但却没有为她们提供一个可以自由与母亲谈论性取向的互动空间。
