Accidents for Boys and Shame on Girls: Gendered Perspectives on Teenage Pregnancy and Abortion Among Chinese Adolescents

• In Event: AERA Roundtable Session Wednesday 10:50 am Four Seasons Ballroom 1
  In Roundtable Session: Gender Differences in Adolescent Development: Asian Perspectives (Table 1)

Abstract

This paper explores Chinese adolescents’ perspectives on teenage pregnancy and abortion and their perceived gendered norms, expectations, and agency. We employed a critical qualitative methodology and a vignette-based focus group method to interview 193 Chinese adolescents in Beijing and Lanzhou, respectively, on their viewpoints on gender and sexuality. Our analysis explicates how the pervasive moralized discourse on teenage pregnancy has deferentially impacted young men’s and women’s attitudes, resulting in the normalization of young men’s risk-taking sexual activities and the stigmatization of young women’s pregnancy. We also examined the historical specificity that shaped Chinese adolescents’ agency in interpreting the rationale that leads to abortion. The implications of the findings on sexuality education within and beyond formal school settings are discussed.

Author

• Xiying Wang, Beijing Normal University