Young men and abortion: the male perspective on unplanned pregnancies.

This is a social-anthropological study that situates abortion as an event inscribed within the broader framework of heterosexual sexuality, gender relationships, contraceptive and reproductive control. Its objective was to reveal the network of social relationships that engender negotiation and decision-making processes surrounding the interruption of unplanned pregnancies and the manners of carrying out abortions based on narratives on the affective-sexual, contraceptive and reproductive trajectories of women and men from different social classes and generations. The focus of this article is young men's position in the face of pregnancy and abortion.

[Abortion itineraries in a clandestine context in the city of Rio de Janeiro-Brazil].

From a series of in-depth interviews, we gathered a significant amount of ethnographic material on the concrete and symbolic paths taken by young women and their partners in the search for a solution to an unplanned pregnancy. Inequities in Brazilian society are expressed in itineraries/routes of different sinuosity, complexity and duration according to the individuals' social and material conditions of existence. Thus, for middle class youths access to abortion is very swift and secure, whereas for the rest of women the decision to abort consists of efforts on different levels to achieve the undertaking.

A new look at teenage pregnancy in Brazil.

THIS PAPER BRINGS A SYNTHESIS OF SOME OF THE MAIN RESULTS PROVIDED BY GRAVAD SURVEY (TEENAGE PREGNANCY: multicentric study about youth, sexuality and reproduction in Brazil). GRAVAD is a study about sexual and reproductive behavior among Brazilian youth that interviewed 4,634 individuals in a population survey with a random sample. Women and men between 18 and 24 years old were interviewed in three capitals-Porto Alegre, Rio de Janeiro and Salvador.

[Sexuality and reproduction: uses and values related to the desire for children among middle-class couples in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil].

This study analyzes aspects comprising the modern conjugal dynamics of heterosexual couples as part of the results of an ethnographic study of 'infertile couples' in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (2004-2005). The target group can be defined culturally by its immersion in the configuration of individualist values. We analyze certain aspects reported by the couples based on their investments in medical resources for conception.

[Negotiation and conflict: gender and sexual coercion in three Brazilian capitals].

This article discusses sexual coercion based on a population survey data, collected between 2001 and 2002, in three Brazilian capitals (Rio de Janeiro, Salvador e Porto Alegre)--Gravad Research. The results presented refer to questions about aspects of sexual negotiation, taken as possible experiences to be identified as sexual coercion, as well as youth values and opinions concerned to sexuality. The interviews were applied to males and females aged 18-24.

[Contraception and family planning services as viewed by users of three clinics in the Unified National Health System, Rio de Janeiro State, Brazil].

This article presents partial data from a larger qualitative, socio-anthropological survey in five States of Brazil, aimed at grasping the perspectives of users in urban and rural areas on their contraceptive and reproductive experiences, and their perceptions concerning contraceptive and family planning care in the Unified National Health System. The article focuses on findings in the State of Rio de Janeiro from 60 individual semi-structured interviews with users 18 to 49 years of age in two primary care clinics in the State capital and one rural clinic under the Family Health Program (FHP). There was a greater diversity in the use of methods in the capital as compared to the interior, where tubal ligation was the only alternative to the pill.

Teenage pregnancy and moral panic in Brazil.

This paper examines teenage pregnancy as a social-historical construction of increasing concern in Brazil. It presents findings from over five years of empirical research alongside an analysis of a sample of newspaper articles representative of the dominant positions in the Brazilian press concerning teenage pregnancy. In contrast to mainstream arguments and to broader moral panic surrounding teenage pregnancy, we argue that contemporary patterns of sexual behaviour among young people in Brazil do not signal growing permissiveness and are not straightforwardly related to poverty, family dysfunction or lack of life projects on the part of young people themselves.

[Magnitude and characterization of sexual coercion experienced by young adults in three Brazilian state capitals: Porto Alegre, Rio de Janeiro, and Salvador].

The article estimates the magnitude of sexual coercion among young adults in three large Brazilian cities. In addition to evaluating prevalence, the article analyzes the victim's and perpetrator's characteristics, identifies the main strategies used in coercion, and explores the social scenarios that favor the occurrence of sexual violence. The article draws on data from a household survey called the GRAVAD Project, conducted in Porto Alegre, Rio de Janeiro, and Salvador and completed in 2002.

Sexual practices in youth: analysis of lifetime sexual trajectory and last sexual intercourse.

This article examines the sexual practices of young Brazilians based on data from the GRAVAD Research Project, a household survey targeting males and females from 18 to 24 years of age (n = 4,634) in three Brazilian State capitals: Porto Alegre, Rio de Janeiro, and Salvador. The set of practices experienced over the course of their sexual careers is characterized by traits of social belonging, elements from individual life histories, and prescribed rules of conduct for men and women. The authors compared the young people's range of lifetime practices and those from last sexual relations in order to discuss the spread and incorporation of practices into life histories.

[Middle-class teenage sexuality and pregnancy in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil].

The subject of this paper is teenage pregnancy among middle-class youth, a topic not sufficiently studied in Brazil. The paper is based on a qualitative, socio-anthropological study of 14 middle-class families in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, whose children have remained single, living with their parents after the child's birth. A total of 25 in-depth interviews were conducted with 6 young men and 7 young women, ages 18 to 24, and their parents (11 mothers, one father), to examine the event in retrospect and its impact on these young people and their families.

[Considering and submitting to abortion among young people in the context of legal prohibition: the hidden side of teenage pregnancy].

This article aims to unveil the notion of abortion as an element in young people's thoughts on teenage pregnancy. The study analyzes data from semi-structured interviews with 123 young men and women 18-24 years of age in Porto Alegre, Rio de Janeiro, and Salvador, Brazil, belonging to different social strata. Based on information concerning their affective, sexual, and reproductive circumstances, an abortion typology was established with a gradient ranging from considering the act to the attempt to materialize it, actually submitting to abortion, and even ruling out the possibility of interrupting the pregnancy.

[Adolescence and reproduction in Brazil: the heterogeneity of social profiles].

This study aims to estimate the prevalence of adolescent pregnancy (AP) in three Brazilian cities Salvador, Rio de Janeiro, and Porto Alegre and to examine the profiles of pregnant girls and their partners in relation to pregnancy outcomes. Data for a retrospective assessment of AP were collected using an interview-based household survey applied to a stratified sample of males and females aged 18-24. A total of 4,634 individuals were interviewed (85.

[Gender and leisure-time physical activity].

This article discusses the relationship between gender and the social construction of the body, specifically focusing on physical exercise during leisure time. The Pró-Saúde Project is a prospective study consisting of 4,030 employees of a university in Rio de Janeiro, in which we analyzed the answers on leisure-time physical activity (LTPA) by 3,740 participants. The results show a prevalence of males in LTPA.