“Boys should have the courage to ask a girl out” : gender norms in early adolescent romantic relationships
Abstract
Purpose: The purpose of the study is to explore how gender norms emerge in romantic relationships among early adolescents (EAs) living in five poor urban areas. Methods: Data were collected as part of the Global Early Adolescent Study. The current research analyzed data from interviews with 30 EAs (aged 11–13 years) living in five poor urban sites: Baltimore, Cuenca, Edinburgh, Ghent, and Nairobi. All interviews were recorded, transcribed, and analyzed in English using Atlas.ti, focusing on how EAs experience and perceive gender norms in romantic relationships. Results: Across the five sites, only a few respondents described having been in love, the majority of whom were boys. Findings indicate that stereotypical gender norms about romantic relationships prevail across these cultural settings, depicting boys as romantically/sexually active and dominant, and girls as innocent with less (romantic) agency. In spite of the similarities, Nairobi was unique in that respondents referred to how sexual behavior and violence can occur within EA relationships. In all countries, heterosexuality was perceived to be the norm. Nevertheless, there were examples of EAs accepting homosexuality and expressing supportive attitudes toward equality between the sexes. Conclusions: While EAs across five different cultural settings seem to endorse stereotypical gender norms in romantic relationships, a few stories also illustrate more gender-equal attitudes. As stereotypical gender norms have a demonstrated negative effect on adolescent sexual and reproductive health and well-being, additional research is needed to understand which factors—at the interpersonal and structural level—contribute to the construction of these norms among EAs.
Citation
De Meyer , S , Kågesten , A , Mmari , K , McEachran , J , Chilet-Rosell , E , Kabiru , C W , Maina , B , Jerves , E M , Currie , C & Michielsen , K 2017 , ' “Boys should have the courage to ask a girl out” : gender norms in early adolescent romantic relationships ' , Journal of Adolescent Health , vol. 61 , no. 4, Supplement , pp. S42-S47 . https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jadohealth.2017.03.007
Publication
Journal of Adolescent Health
Status
Peer reviewed
ISSN
1054-139XType
Journal article
Rights
© 2017 Society for Adolescent Health and Medicine. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Description
This work was funded by the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, the Bill and Melinda Gates Institute, the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), the World Health Organization, the Fund for scientific research-Flanders, the Flemish Ministry of Innovation, Public Investment, Media and Poverty Reduction, SENESCYT—The Institute of Higher Education, Science, Technology and Innovation Ecuador and by the Chief Scientist Office (Scotland).Collections
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