Open AccessYoung Women Encountering Information on Sexuality in Young Adult Literature
Author(s) -
Davin Helkenberg
Publication year - 2019
Publication title -
proceedings of the annual conference of cais
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
ISSN - 2562-7589
DOI - 10.29173/cais1107
Subject(s) - human sexuality , agency (philosophy) , psychology , young adult , developmental psychology , empirical research , social psychology , gender studies , sociology , social science , philosophy , epistemology
This paper investigates Young Adult (YA) Literature as a source of information on sexuality for young women readers. The data for this study is derived from semi-structured interviews (Seidman, 2006) that were conducted with 11 female participants. Six major categories of information on sexuality were found within the interview data: sexual acts, types of relationships, relationship realities, strategies for dealing with relationship problems, sexual abuse, and consent. These findings provide empirical evidence that YA Literature can act as a valuable source of information on sexuality and may promote the sexual agency and well-being of young people, especially young women.