Responding to adolescent women's reproductive health concerns: empowering clients through health literacy.

Adolescents have particular needs in health care that are often not met. Health care providers can help overcome barriers that hinder adolescents' effective use of health services by incorporating health literacy strategies that are developmentally and contextually appropriate, and that actively involve adolescents in their own learning. Based on extensive practice and research experience in Canada with rural and urban high school adolescent women, we offer suggestions for how health care providers can respond to adolescent women's reproductive health concerns by teaching these young women how to increase their skills in functional, communicative/interactive, and critical health literacy.

A community of practice approach for Aboriginal girls' sexual health education.

Introduction: There is a paucity of intervention programs for Aboriginal girls and many of those that exist are delivered in culturally inappropriate ways.

Methods: In this paper, we provide an overview of recent research that focused on delivering a sexual health mentorship program that enhanced the voices of Aboriginal youth and was culturally relevant and appropriate to indigenous youth.

Results: Our program served to enhance social connection and reinforced a sense of belonging and relational mutuality among group members.

Victimization and Relational Aggression in Adolescent Romantic Relationships: The Influence of Parental and Peer Behaviors, and Individual Adjustment.

Consistent with the view that adolescent relationships are established in the context of important characteristics of their social networks, we examined the effects of adolescents' experiences of parenting (psychological control and positive monitoring) and of peer aggression and victimization, on their self reports of dating victimization and aggression. We also examined the effects of individual differences in emotional and behavioral problems. We used questionnaire data from a population-based sample of youth 12-18 years old who were in dating relationships ( = 149).

The tyranny of consensus: implications for nursing education.

The egalitarian appeal of decision making based on consensus has been valued as a strong alternative to other decision making approaches such as voting. In this paper, we identify some of the challenges inherent in this view, and suggest consideration of alternative decision making approaches needed at times to help nurse educators in their work with students and colleagues. As nurse educators, we have a responsibility to educate students about the meanings of consensus, to encourage open discussion about implicit values underlying behaviors, and help them appreciate the importance of dissent in a democratic society.

"Like, what am I supposed to do?": adolescent girls' health concerns in their dating relationships.

This ethnographic study explored the health-related concerns, within dating relationships, of 40 female adolescents aged 15 and 16. The results reveal a complex interaction of male/female relational dynamics and socialization processes in these relationships. To avoid behaviours risky to their health, participants had to negotiate power relationships with partners and peers; yet, paradoxically, any increase in their power could increase the threat of violent confrontation, loss of power, and further health compromises.