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What teenage girls write to agony aunts

Their relationships, perception, pressures and needs

Department of Midwifery and Child Health Studies, Faculty of Health, Canterbury Christ Church University College, Canterbury UK CT1 1 QU

Teenage magazines are viewed by their readers as 'trusted friends' that provide reliable information on sex and relationship issues. Agony aunts and uncles receive approximately half a million letters each year from teenagers in the UK.

Objective To understand the perceptions, pressures and needs of young girls on issues pertaining to their relationships.

Design A qualitative hermeneutic phenomenological approach that subscribes to thematic analysis of transcribed letters over a period of four months.

Method Analysis of 254 anonymous letters sent by young people to the Agony Aunt of Mizz, a teenage magazine aimed at girls aged between 11 and 14 years. An inductive approach was used, codes were developed and modified as new themes and sub-themes emerged from the data and, thus, a thematic framework produced.

Results A framework of the four main problem-themes was identified: boyfriends, friends, family and 'others'. Each theme was scrutinised to identify highest sub-themes, aspects unique to each theme and sub- themes shared between themes. The proportion of concerns over 'relationships' was high.

Conclusion Relationship issues are of most concern to the young female writers. This has important implications for sex and relationship education of young teenage girls, where addressing relationship issues to include negotiation, reciprocity and conflict resolution may be most important to them at this stage of their development.

Key Words: agony aunts • teenage magazines • teenage girls • relationships • hermeneutic phenomenology

Health Education Journal, Vol. 63, No. 4, 324-333 (2004)
DOI: 10.1177/001789690406300404


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