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Journal of Health Psychology
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An Exploration of the Discursive Constructions used in Young Adults' Memories and Accounts of Contraception

Angela Harden

University of London, UK

Carla Willig

Middlesex University, UK

The study reported in this article uses discourse analysis to examine the meaning and significance of contraception for young adults and emphasizes the social construction of meaning to better explain what can limit and what can facilitate use of contraception. The study used memory work (Crawford et al., Emotion and Gender: Constructing Meaning from Memories. Sage, 1992) and group discussions to collect accounts of contraception. Analysis of the accounts revealed that constructions of contraception used in the memories all signified sex, which invoked wider gendered discourses surrounding sexuality. Such discourses gave rise to contradictory positionings for the actors within the memories. In contrast, the accounts of contraception from the group discussions were predominantly produced with reference to a health promotion discourse. However, further analysis revealed that the constitution of this discourse was always highly precarious. These findings are discussed in terms of the implications for health promotion efforts.

Key Words: contraception • discourse analysis • memories

Journal of Health Psychology, Vol. 3, No. 3, 429-445 (1998)
DOI: 10.1177/135910539800300310
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