From “scary metal tools” to “generations of clueless people”: Exploring reproductive health among Asian American youth

• In Event: Eros and Agency

Abstract

This community-engaged study examines how Asian American young adults in Alameda County, California understand sexual and reproductive health (SRH) and experience SRH care during emerging adulthood, a pivotal life stage with implications for long-term health trajectories. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with Asian American young adults (18 to 26 years old) across a range of ethnic backgrounds, gender identities, and socioeconomic positions. Research objectives and processes were developed collaboratively with an Asian-serving youth organization in Oakland, CA. We examine three interconnected processes to illustrate how Asian American young adults rethink family expectations, reconcile health system constraints, and refine their evolving understandings of bodily and reproductive autonomy.
Our findings illustrate how Asian American young adults contend with dominant U.S. ideals of individual choice and person-centeredness within healthcare. For many, reproductive decisions are embedded within family and community contexts rather than treated as purely individual acts. Participants describe navigating racism, sexism, classism, heteronormativity, and xenophobia across social (e.g., family and community) and institutional (e.g., healthcare, education, and social services) settings, revealing how structural inequalities shape SRH information, services, and ultimately decision-making power. Drawing on reproductive justice as a Black feminist analytical framework and life course perspectives, we underscore how intersecting systems of oppression contour Asian American young adults' reproductive lives. By centering their varied and nuanced lived experiences, we highlight how young adults acknowledge and disrupt cycles of intergenerational trauma and inequity by transforming family, cultural, and clinical expectations to claim reproductive autonomy in structurally constrained contexts. This research contributes critical insights into how SRH inequalities emerge and are negotiated during emerging adulthood, highlighting pathways toward more equitable and accessible SRH care.

Author

• Paige Logan Prater, University of California-San Francisco