Abstract
Ethnographic approaches offer deep insights into the lives of people, and as anthropologists are our preferred approaches for our work with young people. Extended participant observation is, however, not possible in all research settings and other approaches are needed which still aim to capture the ideas and voices of young people. This chapter explores two youth-friendly methods for exploring sexuality, relationships and sexual health with young people. We document the development of a scenario-based body-mapping exercise and a participatory community-mapping exercise to form the basis of embodied story telling.
Notes
- 1.
Our Lives: Culture, Context and Risk was a three-year study of sexual health and relationships carried out in the Northern Territory, Western Australia and South Australia. It was an Australian Research Council Linkage project and was jointly funded by the health departments of all the states and territories who were involved, as well as 20 other government and non-government partners.
- 2.
This study included one capital city, three regional towns, one urban setting on the outskirts of an urban area and two remote Aboriginal communities.
- 3.
Shame is concept with extremely complex meanings in Aboriginal contexts and can be understood to mean more than a passing experience of embarrassment. Shame is understood as a regulatory mechanism encouraging group conformity and is a sanction against attracting attention (removed for blind review).
- 4.
The Indigenous males and females were usually segregated, reflecting the emphasis on keeping male and female business separate.
References
Allen, L. (2001). Young people and sexuality education: Rethinking key debates. London: Palgrave McMillan.
Atkinson, P. (2015). For ethnography. Los Angeles: Sage Publications.
Brumbach, B. H., Figueredo, J., & Ellis, B. J. (2009). Effects of harsh and unpredictable environments in adolescence on development of life history strategies: A longitudinal test of an evolutionary model. Human Nature, 20, 25–51.
Chang, H. (2008). Autoethnography as method. Walnut Creek: Left Coast Press.
Chenhall, R, Davison, B, Fitz, J, Pearse, J and Senior, K. (2013). ‘Engaging youth in sexual health research: refining a youth friendly method in the Northern Territory of Australia’, Visual Anthropology Review, 29 (2): 123-132.
Dennis, S. F., Gaulcher, S., Carpiano, R. M., & Brown, D. (2009). Participatory photo mapping (PPM): Exploring an integrated method for health and place research with young people. Health and Place, 15, 466–473.
Fetterman, D. M. (2010). Ethnography, step by step (Applied social science research methods 3rd ed., Vol. 17). Los Angeles: Sage Publications.
Fisher, J. D., & Fisher, W. A. (1996). The information-motivation behavioral skills model of AIDS risk behavior change: Empirical support and application. In S. Oskamp & S. C. Thompson (Eds.), Understanding and preventing AIDS risk behaviour: Safer sex and drug use (pp. 80–89). Thousand Oaks: Sage.
Hammer, J. D., Fisher, J. D., Fitzgerald, P., & Fisher, W. A. (1996). When tow heads aren’t better than one: AIDS behavior risk in college-aged couples. Journal of Applied Psychology, 26, 375–397.
Helmer, J., Senior, K., Davison, B., & Vodic, A. (2015). Improving sexual health for young people: Making sexuality education a priority. Sex Education, 15(2), 158–171.
Jackson, S. M., & Cram, F. (2003). Disrupting the sexual double standard: Young women’s talk about heterosexuality. British Journal of Social Psychology, 42, 113–127.
MacPhail, C., & Campbell, C. (2011). I think condoms are good, but aai I hate those things: Condom use among adolescents and young people in a southern African township. Social Science and Medicine, 52(11), 1613–1627.
McMullen, S. (2015). Growing up fast: The sexual and reproductive health of young women in a remote Aboriginal community. Ph.D. thesis, Charles Darwin University, Darwin.
Mitchell, A. (2014). Sex education for young people. In M. Temple Smith (Ed.), Sexual health: A multidisciplinary approach (pp. 351–364). Melbourne: IP Communications.
Power, R., Langhaugh, L., & Cowan, J. (2007). But there are no snakes in the wood: Risk mapping as an outcomes measure in evaluating complex interventions. Sexually Transmitted Infections, 85, 232–236.
Senior, K and Chenhall, R. (2008). ‘Walkin’ about at night: the background to teenage pregnancy in a remote Aboriginal community’, Journal of Youth Studies, 11(3): 269-281.
Senior, K and Chenhall, R. (2013). Health beliefs and behaviour: the practicalities of looking after yourself in an Australian Aboriginal community, Medical Anthropology Quarterly, 27(2): 155-174.
Senior, K, Helmer, J, Chenhall, R and Burbank, V. (2014). “Young clean and safe?” young people’s perception of risk from sexually transmitted infection in regional, rural and remote Australia, Culture Health and Sexuality, 16(4): 453-466.
Simpson, J. A., Griskevicus, V., I-Chun Kuo, S., Sung, S., & Collins, W. A. (2012). Evolution, stress and sensitive periods: The influence of unpredictability in early versus late childhood on sex and risky behavior. Developmental Psychology, 48(3), 674–686.
Solomon, J. (2007). Living with X: A body mapping journey in the time of HIV/AIDS, facilitator’s guide. Regional Psychosocial Support Initiative, REPSSI. http://www.repssi.org
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 2017 The Author(s)
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Senior, K., Chenhall, R. (2017). More than “Just Learning About the Organs”: Embodied Story Telling as a Basis for Learning About Sex and Relationships. In: Allen, L., Rasmussen, M.L. (eds) The Palgrave Handbook of Sexuality Education. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-40033-8_5
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/978-1-137-40033-8_5
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-137-40032-1
Online ISBN: 978-1-137-40033-8
eBook Packages: EducationEducation (R0)