Background: Parents of children with intellectual or developmental disabilities have unique challenges in navigating the developmental period of adolescence. The present study explored the experiences of parents connected with disability services throughout the island of Ireland of parenting their child during adolescence. Method: Five focus…

Limited research exists on the slut labeling process, a key means of enforcing rules around appropriate female sexuality. This study explores that process through qualitative interviews with 44 adolescent girls in Travis County, Texas. Labeling girls as sluts or hos was pervasive and was based on a number of factors beyond sexual behavior,…

Parental communication and support is associated with improved developmental, health and behavioral outcomes in adolescence. This study explores the quality of mother-daughter communication about sexual maturation, abstinence and unintended pregnancy in Korogocho, an informal settlement in Nairobi, Kenya. We use data from 14 focus group…

This paper considers how issues of adolescent development might be brought into conversation with dilemmas in sex education. Here, sex education is larger than information, affirmation or prohibition. In its address to the most intimate aspects of life--love, loss, vulnerability, power, friendship, aggression--sex education is necessarily…

The psychosocial impact of puberty on changes in girls' feelings about their bodies and their sexuality is discussed. We present a model of girls' sexuality development that incorporates puberty, self, and peer systems. (Contains 2 figures.)