Gender matters: constructing a model of adolescent sexual health.
This article illustrates the construction of a new model of adolescent sexual health, one that addresses the complex relationships between gender and adolescent sexuality. A review of sexual health models highlights the absence of gender; in contrast, research illuminates the significance of gender. This article describes the process of building a model of sexual health explicitly for girls, guided by feminist research on adolescent girls' sexuality and a "web of theories". It also describes the unanticipated challenges of making a companion model for boys and the ensuing shift from a gender-specific approach to an integrated gendered model of adolescent sexual health. Gender complementarity is defined and forwarded as a way to incorporate gender into a model of adolescent sexual health.
Tolman
Deborah L
DL
Center for Research on Women, Wellesley College, 106 Central Street, Wellesley, MA 02481, USA. dtolman@wellesley.edu.
Striepe
Meg I
MI
Harmon
Tricia
T
D000293:Adolescent; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012725:Sexual Behavior / Q000502:physiology*