Abstract
This qualitative study explores how adolescents’ emotional experiences drive their sexual practices and health-seeking behaviours in Fiji. Fourteen focus group discussions with 15–19-year-olds and 40 key informants’ interviews with health workers, educators, government and NGO workers, and religious leaders were conducted. Our findings show that emotional experiences such as shame, embarrassment, expression of love, and intimacy are shaped by the socio-cultural context and were reported by our participants as drivers of their sexual practices and health-seeking behaviours such as condom use and accessing services and support. Based on our findings, we argue that more attention should be paid to emotional well-being when developing sexual and reproductive health policies, programmes, and services and offer recommendations of how to do so.
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Notes
A national census was conducted in Fiji in 2017; however, data on the ethnic composition of Fijian citizens from this census is not available.
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This work was supported by The Pacific Community.
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The Fiji National Health Research Ethics Review Committee and the Human Research Ethics Committee at UNSW provided ethics approval.
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O’Connor, M., Rawstorne, P., Iniakwala, D. et al. Fijian Adolescent Emotional Well-Being and Sexual and Reproductive Health-Seeking Behaviours. Sex Res Soc Policy 16, 373–384 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13178-018-0360-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13178-018-0360-y