A socio-contextual perspective on gender and sexuality colleges
Laura Baams
Group assignment (20%), Exam (80%)
16-11-23 Parents and peers
Sexual development refers to the physical aspects of development (secondary sex
characteristics and sexual behavior)
whereas sexuality encompasses a broader view on sex (desires, feelings, emotions,
relationships)
Minority stress refers to stressors (victimization, discrimination, violence, stigma)
faced by members of stigmatized minority groups. These minority stressors may lead
to poor mental health outcomes.
Health disparities = difference in the burden of disease, injury, violence, or
opportunities to achieve optimal health that are experienced by socially
disadvantaged populations
Socio-context: school, home, friends, sports team, partner, media
Bronfenbrenner: social environment of adolescents
Arrows : bidirectional influence, interacts with individual, but also with each other.
Ecological model
‘’Continuous interactions between individual characteristics and socio-contextual
factors’’
- Multifaceted: protective and risky
- Complex: interactions
- Dynamic: stronger in some developmental periods, weaker in others
,Questions to answer
1. Which socio-contextual factors are particularly important in comparison to one
another?
are peers more important than parents?
2. How multiple socio-contextual factors may have different effects?
peers negative, parents positive?
3. How multiple socio-contextual factors may interact with each other, thus
changing (i.e., strengthening or weakening) each other’s effects?
parents positive, but only with positive peers
Examples
- Project STARS
Studies on Trajectories of Adolescent Relationships and Sexuality
- N = 1297 adolescents
- Followed 1.5 years, every 6 months
- Wave 1: last year of primary school, first four years of secondary school
- Romantic and sexual experiences
- Individual characteristics
- Peer and parent relationships
- Media and online behaviour
Parents
- Three waves of Project STARS
- Sexually experienced at wave 1
- More frequent parent-adolescent sexual communication sexual autonomy
- Sexual autonomy more positive and less negative sexual emotions
Parent-adolescent sexual communication safer sex behaviour
Parent-based interventions improved condom use
parent-adolescent sexual communication
Peer norms sexual behavior
- Descriptive norms sexual activity
- Injunctive norms sexual activity
- Peer pressure sexual activity
- Descriptive norms sexual risk
Selection effects were stronger than socialization effects (more likely to select friends
who are similar to you, also engaging in those behaviours = selection effects)
Parents and peers
- Two waves of Project STARS
, - Sexually inexperienced at wave 1
- Relationship quality with parents
- Communication about sex with parents
- Peer pressure
DIRECT:
- Relationship quality with parents less likely to have had sex or intend to
have sex
INTERACTION
- Frequent communication about sex with parents buffered impact from peer
pressure on intention to have sex
Communication with parents, peers, and partners: The Three Ps
Communication about sexual health topics
- 54% had not discussed any sexual topics with their dating partners
- 29% had not communicated with parents
- 25% had not communicated with best friends
Conclusion
- Important social environments
- Today’s focus: parents and peers
- Buffers but also enhancers
College 2 23-11-23 Minority stress and Stigma
Health disparities (ongelijkheden)
Mechanisms
- How can we explain health disparities between sexual minority and
heterosexual youth?
The minority stress framework
Laura Baams
Group assignment (20%), Exam (80%)
16-11-23 Parents and peers
Sexual development refers to the physical aspects of development (secondary sex
characteristics and sexual behavior)
whereas sexuality encompasses a broader view on sex (desires, feelings, emotions,
relationships)
Minority stress refers to stressors (victimization, discrimination, violence, stigma)
faced by members of stigmatized minority groups. These minority stressors may lead
to poor mental health outcomes.
Health disparities = difference in the burden of disease, injury, violence, or
opportunities to achieve optimal health that are experienced by socially
disadvantaged populations
Socio-context: school, home, friends, sports team, partner, media
Bronfenbrenner: social environment of adolescents
Arrows : bidirectional influence, interacts with individual, but also with each other.
Ecological model
‘’Continuous interactions between individual characteristics and socio-contextual
factors’’
- Multifaceted: protective and risky
- Complex: interactions
- Dynamic: stronger in some developmental periods, weaker in others
,Questions to answer
1. Which socio-contextual factors are particularly important in comparison to one
another?
are peers more important than parents?
2. How multiple socio-contextual factors may have different effects?
peers negative, parents positive?
3. How multiple socio-contextual factors may interact with each other, thus
changing (i.e., strengthening or weakening) each other’s effects?
parents positive, but only with positive peers
Examples
- Project STARS
Studies on Trajectories of Adolescent Relationships and Sexuality
- N = 1297 adolescents
- Followed 1.5 years, every 6 months
- Wave 1: last year of primary school, first four years of secondary school
- Romantic and sexual experiences
- Individual characteristics
- Peer and parent relationships
- Media and online behaviour
Parents
- Three waves of Project STARS
- Sexually experienced at wave 1
- More frequent parent-adolescent sexual communication sexual autonomy
- Sexual autonomy more positive and less negative sexual emotions
Parent-adolescent sexual communication safer sex behaviour
Parent-based interventions improved condom use
parent-adolescent sexual communication
Peer norms sexual behavior
- Descriptive norms sexual activity
- Injunctive norms sexual activity
- Peer pressure sexual activity
- Descriptive norms sexual risk
Selection effects were stronger than socialization effects (more likely to select friends
who are similar to you, also engaging in those behaviours = selection effects)
Parents and peers
- Two waves of Project STARS
, - Sexually inexperienced at wave 1
- Relationship quality with parents
- Communication about sex with parents
- Peer pressure
DIRECT:
- Relationship quality with parents less likely to have had sex or intend to
have sex
INTERACTION
- Frequent communication about sex with parents buffered impact from peer
pressure on intention to have sex
Communication with parents, peers, and partners: The Three Ps
Communication about sexual health topics
- 54% had not discussed any sexual topics with their dating partners
- 29% had not communicated with parents
- 25% had not communicated with best friends
Conclusion
- Important social environments
- Today’s focus: parents and peers
- Buffers but also enhancers
College 2 23-11-23 Minority stress and Stigma
Health disparities (ongelijkheden)
Mechanisms
- How can we explain health disparities between sexual minority and
heterosexual youth?
The minority stress framework
