title: Gender matters: constructing a model of adolescent sexual health.
abstract: 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.
authors.affiliation: Center for Research on Women, Wellesley College, 106 Central Street, Wellesley, MA 02481, USA. dtolman@wellesley.edu.
authors.forename: Deborah L
authors.initials: DL
authors.lastname: Tolman
authors.forename: Meg I
authors.initials: MI
authors.lastname: Striepe
authors.forename: Tricia
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Harmon
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D012725:Sexual Behavior / Q000502:physiology*