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Talking tough and feeling safe

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Title: Talking tough and feeling safe


1
Talking tough and feeling safe
  • Researching young womens sexual safety
  • innovations and perspectives
  • Joy Trotter
  • UK Joint Social Work Education Conference with
    the UK Social Work Research Conference
  • Social Work People, Place and Politics
  • Homerton College, Cambridge
  • 9th-11th July 2008

2
Lavie-Ajayi, M. (2007)
  • Introduction
  • adults concerns about young people
  • adults concerns about young womens sexual
    safety
  • safe from what? safe from whom?
  • reasons to have sex
  • adults lack of concern?
  • findings from the 2000 British Crime Survey
  • adults lack of knowledge?
  • adults lack of awareness?
  • young gay women's sexual safety
  • Researching young womens sexual safety
  • The project
  • Preliminary stages chicken or egg?
  • Other considerations
  • Vulnerability and consent
  • Reflecting on process (so far)
  • References

3
adults concerns about young people
  • Last months news headlines
  • A dossier of abuse of the human rights of
    children and young people in Britain widespread
    infringements of the UN convention most serious
    defects include
  • A punitive juvenile justice system
  • Public attitudes that demonise teenagers
  • Lack of protection against physical punishment in
    the home
  • One of the highest levels of child poverty in
    Europe.
    The Guardian Monday, 09 June 2008
  • Under-25s offered online help as debts grow
  • over 2 out of 3 young people aren't planning
    ahead
  • increasing numbers are in debt
  • a third owe more than 5,000 .
    The
    Independent Sunday, 08 June 2008
  • School meals 'near collapse' as soaring food
    costs and lack of Government funding take toll.
  • The Daily Mail Monday, 23 June 2008

4
adults concerns about young women's sexual
safety
  • Last months news headlines
  • 1 in 5 parents refuse daughters' cervical cancer
    jab. The
    Guardian Friday April 25 2008
  • Abortion rate hits record high among under-16s.
    The Independent
    Saturday, 20 June 2008
  • The Pill online Fear for young girls as website
    starts selling prescription-only contraceptives
    today.
    The
    Daily Mail Monday, 23 June 2008
  • Not in the headlines
  • women account for nearly half of the 40 million
    people living with HIV-1 worldwide (Quinn
    and Overbaugh 2005)
  • numerous studies into pregnancy and sexually
    transmitted infections (STIs) all with sub-text
    of prevention and/or abstinence

    (Remez 2000 Wellings
    et al 2001)

5
safe from what? safe from whom?
  1. .
  2. .
  3. ..
  4. .
  5. ..
  6. ..
  7. .
  8. .

6
18 heterosexual young women - action research
group, YWCA Northampton 2006 Lavie-Ajayi, M.
(2007)
7
adults lack of concern?
8
findings from the 2000 British Crime Survey
  • Current levels of sexual victimisation
  • 0.9 per cent of women aged 16 to 59 said they
    had been subject to some form of sexual
    victimisation (including rape) during the last
    year.
  • Levels of lifetime (since age 16) sexual
    victimisation
  • Around 1 in 10 women (9.7) said they had
    experienced some form of sexual victimisation
    (including rape) since age 16.
  • Around 1 in 20 women (4.9) said they had been
    raped on at least one occasion since age 16.
  • Risk factors for sexual victimisation
  • Age is the biggest risk factor for experiencing
    sexual victimisation young women aged 16 to 24
    were more likely to say they had been sexually
    victimised in the last year than older women.
  • Single women, students, and women living in
    privately rented households also experienced
    higher than average risks of sexual
    victimisation it is likely, however, that this
    is the same pattern reflected for age young
    women are disproportionately found in these
    socio-demographic group
  • (Myhill and Allen 2002)

9
adults lack of knowledge?
  • Failing to address sexuality and fertility for
    young people with impairments or health
    conditions means we also fail to offer them the
    chance to feel good about themselves and to
    achieve socially and psychologically healthy
    adult identities. (Balen Crawshaw
    2006 p11)
  • Much of the violence and aggression that was
    talked about was sexual in nature and again, they
    spoke of young mens violence against young
    women. They try to nip your bum ... cos they
    just do it cos theyre (young woman)
    (Trotter 2006 p296)

10
adults lack of awareness?
  • Young, out and proud sexual health experts have
    expressed concern that - with no chance of
    pregnancy and few worries about STDs - lesbian
    teenagers are more promiscuous than their
    straight peers.
    The Guardian Friday October
    13, 2006
  • The seemingly everyday occurrences of sexual
    aggression and intimidation between young people
    in schools might signal adults disinterest or
    even acceptance of homophobic violence and
    violence against women
    (Trotter 2006
    p299)

11
young gay women's sexual safety
  • One member of our group told us of a friend of
    hers that was walking hand-in-hand with her
    girlfriend one evening in the centre of Bristol
    and was attacked and punched by two men.
  • Young woman, Lavie-Ajayi 2007
  • She got tortured for it. She ended up sitting on
    the front at dinner times and breaks for being
    called lesbian. She was the only one who ever
    got really badly bullied, and whether its true or
    not nobody knows.
    Young
    man, Trotter, 2006
  • Generally there is a lack of specific services
    for young women I think theres a lot more for
    young men, and young gay men are so much more
    accepted than young women are ... I felt isolated
    people need to feel safe about who to talk to.
    If you were black and getting racism you could
    maybe talk to a black teacher. But I didnt know
    if there was any gay teachers but it wasnt
    talked about so you suspected that they were in
    hiding themselves or not allowed to be gay
    doesnt fill you with confidence.
    Young woman, Hind 2004

12
Researching young womens sexual safety
13
The project
  • research focus
  • differences between adults' perceptions and young
    people's
  • research aims
  • redressing the balance between the literature
    around young women and sexual safety (mostly
    based on adult-controlled research) by
  • involving young women in the design, content and
    structure of the research process
  • by asking young women what they believe the
    differences and gaps are between their
    perceptions and adults' perceptions of young
    women's sexual safety and,
  • by involving the perspectives of young gay women
    (often missing from research in this area).

14
Preliminary stages chicken or egg?
  • Consultation
  • Design
  • Content
  • Structure
  • Process
  • Creating a safe environment
  • discussing a working agreement
  • explaining research
  • getting to know each other
  • securing consent
  • Ethical approval
  • Permission
  • Ethical approval
  • Design
  • Content
  • Structure
  • Process
  • Creating a safe environment
  • discussing a working agreement
  • explaining research
  • getting to know each other
  • securing consent

15
Other considerations
  • self-presentation
  • insider/outsider status
  • influence of obtaining consent on participation
    rates
  • verbal consent / written consent
  • verbal parental consent / written parental
    consent
  • (Geldens, 2002)
  • how informed can participants be?
  • how can consent be obtained from everyone who
    enters the field?
  • how extensive can consent to observation be
    assumed to be?
  • (Mulhall, 2003)
  • 'informed dissent ensuring that children and
    young people can refuse to take part.
  • (Edwards Alldred, 1999)

16
Vulnerability and consent
  • lesbian and gay young people are characterised as
    vulnerable because lesbian and gay sexualities
    are largely stigmatised and/or problematised
    identities.
  • conducting research with lesbian or gay young
    people is difficult because of
  • the reluctance of adults/professionals to agree
    to research focusing on sexuality
  • the reluctance of young people to participate
    because of risks of bullying and social
    exclusion.
  • (Valentine, Butler Skelton, 2001)

17
Reflecting on process (so far)
  • Stalled and frozen
  • Talking tough or feeling safe?
  • Mirrored experiences?
  • Im happy because Im not nervous and anxious or
    worried about being gay, Im not worried about
    being on my own Ive got more self confidence, I
    know being gay is normal and okay.
  • Young woman, Hind 2004

18
References
  • Balen, R. Crawshaw, M. (Eds.) (2006) Sexuality
    and Fertility Issues in Ill Health and
    Disability From Adolescence to Adulthood,
    London Jessica Kingsley.
  • Edwards, R. Alldred, P. (1999) Children and
    young people's views of social research the case
    of research on home-school relations. Childhood,
    6(2), 261 281.
  • Geldens, P. (2002) I am not as cool as I thought
    I was the challenges of conducting research with
    young people in rural areas. Rural Social Work
    7(1), 1 6.
  • Hind, T. (2004) Promoting Lesbian and Gay Health
    and Wellbeing, London PACE.
  • Mulhall, A. (2003) In the field notes on
    observation in qualitative research. Journal of
    Advanced Nursing 41(3), 306 - 313.
  • Quinn, T. C. and Overbaugh, J. (2005) HIV/AIDS in
    women an expanding epidemic, Science, 308(5728),
    pp. 1582 1583
  • Remez, L. (2000) Oral sex among adolescents is
    it sex or is it abstinence? Family Planning
    Perspectives, 32(6), pp. 298 - 304
  • Wellings, K., Nanchahal, K., Macdowall, W.,
    McManus, S., Erens, B., Mercer, C., Johnson, A.,
    Copas, A., Korovessis, C. and Fenton, K. (2001)
    Sexual behaviour in Britain early heterosexual
    experience, The Lancet, 358(9296), pp. 1843
    1850
  • Marston , C. and King, E. (2006) Factors that
    shape young people's sexual behaviour a
    systematic review, The Lancet, 368(9547), pp.
    1581 1586
  • Lavie-Ajayi, M. (2007) Is it a sex thing? Using
    co-operative inquiry to support sexual health A
    YWCA report of action research by young women,
    Oxford YWCA England Wales
  • Myhill, A. and Allen, J. (2002) Rape and Sexual
    Assault of Women The Extent and Nature of the
    Problem. Home Office Research Study 237
  • Trotter, J. (2006) Violent crimes? Young
    peoples experiences of homophobia and misogyny
    in secondary schools. Practice, 18(4), 291 302
  • Valentine, G., Butler, R. Skelton, T. (2001)
    The ethical and methodological complexities of
    doing research with vulnerable young people.
    Ethics, Place and Environment 4, 117 - 178.

19
Talking tough and feeling safe
  • Researching young womens sexual safety
  • innovations and perspectives
  • thank you
  • Joy Trotter j.trotter_at_tees.ac.uk
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