‘Young clean and safe?’ Young people's perceptions of risk from sexually transmitted infections in regional, rural and remote Australia

Abstract

This paper examines young people's perceived vulnerability to sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and their efforts to create a sense of personal safety within an environment in which risks may be high and where STIs are highly stigmatised. The paper reports on findings from research involving both Indigenous and non-Indigenous 16- to 25-year-olds from remote, rural and regional Australia, including communities in the Northern Territory, Western Australia and South Australia. The study used qualitative methods, including body mapping and scenario based interviewing, to explore how young people made decisions about potential sexual partners and how STIs were understood within the context of young people's everyday social worlds. The paper has important implications for the design and implementation of sexual-health education programmes by documenting the stigmatisation of young people with STIs and the protective mechanisms peer groups employ to create perceptions of personal safety.

‘Jumping around’: exploring young women's behaviour and knowledge in relation to sexual health in a remote Aboriginal Australian community

“…This was reflected in situations involving non-peer-aged male partner's sexual coercion; harassment from partners for money or substances; condom-use refusal; violence; and substance use. Senior et al (2014) reported young women in other remote areas as also having to negotiate the terms of their sexual relationships around gender-based beliefs and expectations. Although the concepts of homosexual, lesbian or bisexual relationships were known by participants, they stated they occurred only in urban centres associated with binge drinking.…”

‘As long as he's coming home to me’: vulnerability, jealousy and violence in young people's relationships in remote, rural and regional Australia

“…(Senior witnessed event Sept. 2013) Drawn from a sample of 88 Indigenous young people in five locations in urban and remote Northern Australia, this research utilised a combination of qualitative approaches to explore young people's ideas about sexual relationships and violence. Our previous research (Chenhall, Davison, Fitz, Pearse, & Senior, 2013;Senior & Chenhall, 2008;Senior, Helmer, & Chenhall, 2014) in both remote and urban settings alerted us to the normalisation of violence in young people's relationships. In this paper we explored how this acceptance of violence can manifest in the experience and management of everyday relationships.…”

The art of body mapping: A methodological guide for social work researchers

“…In addition to art therapy, body mapping can be used for advocacy, providing treatment information and support and in participatory research (Solomon, 2002). Internationally, the empirical literature on body mapping has burgeoned in the fields of social science, health and education on topics including HIV/AIDS (MacGregor, 2008;Maina, Sutankayo, Chorney, & Caine, 2014), undocumented workers (Gastaldo, Magalhaes, Carrasco, & Davy, 2012), refugee youth (Davy, Magalhaes, Mandich, & Galheigo, 2014), sexual health (Ramsuran & Lurwengu, 2008;Senior, Helmer, Chenhall, & Burbank, 2014), child poverty (Mitchell, 2006), gendered violence (Sweet & Escalante, 2015) and occupational dance injury (Tarr & Thomas, 2011).…”