South African Adolescents’ Constructions of Intimacy in Romantic Relationships

Abstract

Localized understandings of adolescent romantic relationships are needed to expand our knowledge of the diversity of adolescent romantic experiences and to challenge negative discourses of adolescent heterosexual relationships. This study explored the constructions of intimacy of 20 adolescent men and women in romantic relationships from one low-income community in the Western Cape Province of South Africa. Using Charmaz’s constructivist grounded theory method, we found that our participants reproduced dominant romantic and gender discourses in their intimacy constructions within a community context of limited and limiting discourses. We argue that they could benefit from alternative discourses, more opportunities to interact privately and intimately with their partners, and to reflect on and articulate their romantic relationship experiences.

A systematic review and qualitative synthesis of adolescents’ views of sexual readiness

“…, Hyde et al . 2008(a), Barrientos Delgado & Silva Segovia , Lesch & Furphy , Chang et al . , Hartley et al .…”

“…, Suvivuo et al . , Lesch & Furphy , Barrientos Delgado & Silva Segovia , Hartley et al . ) emphasized that a key form of social learning was the passing down of sexual scripts.…”

“…Findings from sixteen qualitative studies (Gilmore et al 1996, Coleman & Ingham 1999, Smith et al 2003, Allen 2004Andrinopoulos et al 2006, Hyde et al 2008a,b, 2009, Suvivuo et al 2010, Barrientos Delgado & Silva Segovia 2014, Lesch & Furphy 2013, Chang et al 2014, Hartley et al 2014, Laborde et al 2014, Volpe et al 2014, Bell et al 2015 are included in the review. Various aspects of adolescents' readiness for sex were examined, for example, some studies investigated sexual values, decision-making and motivations for initiating sex, others focused on partner selection and communication.…”

“…Sample sizes ranged from 17 (Volpe et al 2014) -173 (Suvivuo et al 2010) participants. Eight studies contained mostly equal numbers of males and females (Smith et al 2003Andrinopoulos et al 2006, Hyde et al 2008, Barrientos Delgado & Silva Segovia 2014, Lesch & Furphy 2013, Chang et al 2014, Hartley et al 2014, Laborde et al 2014. Four studies were predominantly female (Coleman & Ingham 1999, Allen 2004, Suvivuo et al 2010, Volpe et al 2014) and 4 included all males (Gilmore et al 1996, Hyde et al 2008b, Bell et al 2015.…”

Ideals as Anchors for Relationship Experiences

“…Women also value partners who communicate openly and who “listen when [they] are talking” (Pettifor et al 2012:481). Being able to “talk freely” (Lesch and Furphy 2013:632) and “confide in someone” (Bell 2012:288) are among the most salient benefits women report receiving from relationships. Building on these insights, we focus on women’s assessments of their current relationships along two dimensions—expressions of care and open communication—as indicators of relationship quality .…”