Journal Articles
Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://mro.massey.ac.nz/handle/10179/7915
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Item Supporting Intellectually Disabled Women’s Sexual and Reproductive Health and Rights: A Qualitative Study With Support Workers in Aotearoa New Zealand(Taylor and Francis Group, 2023-11-16) Bloom O; Morison TThis article presents findings from a qualitative study of support worker responses to intellectually disabled women’s sex and reproductive health. Drawing on reproductive justice theory, interviews with seven support workers from various disability service providers in New Zealand were analyzed using reflexive thematic analysis. The findings point to the persistence of a sexual risk discourse, which undermines progressive perspectives, including the rights-based approach that is usually advocated for in sexual and reproductive health, and ultimately constrains intellectually disabled women’s sexual agency. The value of a reproductive justice framework for countering risk-oriented framings in favor of a social justice perspective that expands the notions of individual rights is discussed. The findings support a growing global evidence base and have implications for national and international policy and practice.Item Youth, Pornography, and Addiction: A Critical Review(Springer Nature Switzerland AG, 2024-04) Healy-Cullen S; Taylor K; Morison TPurpose of Review: In this article, we dig more deeply into the assumptions underpinning common-sense understandings about youth “exposure” to pornography and the ostensible “effects” of this exposure, specifically “pornography addiction”. We trace the emergence of the notion of “pornography addiction”, highlighting how cultural conditions have allowed for its realisation as a socially recognisable and intelligible narrative. Recent Findings: Media effects research on the issue of youth “exposure” to pornography is not conclusive, nor is pornography addiction officially recognised as a diagnosable disorder. Moreover, an emerging body of multidisciplinary qualitative research, which, importantly, includes the perspectives and experiences of young people themselves, raises questions about some of the assumptions and conclusions of effects-focused research. Summary: Despite inconclusive and contrasting findings, the social narrative of pornography addiction persists both within and beyond academe. We make sense of this persistence in relation to the broader problematisation of youth sexuality, which includes unease and moral objection to young people viewing pornography. It is important to recognise the broader socio-cultural systems supporting the cultural narrative of pornography addiction, and the social functions that this narrative serves, that is, the need for adult intervention into the sexual lives of youth.Item Performing smart sexual selves: A sexual scripting analysis of youth talk about internet pornography(SAGE Publications, 2023-01-22) Healy-Cullen S; Morison T; Taylor J; Taylor KIn this article, we explore young New Zealanders’ use of sexual scripts in talk about Internet pornography (IP) to perform ‘smart’ sexual selves. Using sexual scripting theory, as developed by feminist discursive psychologists, our analysis of interview data generated with 10 youth (aged 16–18 years) highlights two commonly constructed sexual identities across youth talk; (i) the proficient Internet pornography user, and (ii) the astute Internet pornography viewer. The way these young people talk about portrayals of sexuality and gender in IP – and their ability to discern its artifice – suggests they are savvy consumers who are capable of using IP as a cultural resource (e.g. for learning, entertainment) while at the same time acknowledging it as a flawed representation of sex and sexuality. We discuss the implications of our findings for strengths-based sexuality education that supports sexual agency, proposing a justice-orientated approach grounded in the notion of ethical sexual citizenship.Item Women’s perspectives on long-acting reversible contraception: a critical scoping review of qualitative research(Taylor and Francis Group LLC, 2021-05-18) Morison T; Eagar DLong-acting Reversible Contraception (LARC) has significant promise both from a public health outlook and a social justice perspective. However, if women’s empowerment is to be supported, then perspectives and experiences of LARC must be considered. This scoping review assesses research about contraceptive users’ perspectives and experiences of contraceptive decision-making and practices. A content analysis was conducted to identify research trends in qualitative studies of contraceptive-user perspectives (n = 54), located by means of a systematic search. Interpreting findings through a reproductive justice lens, three main limitations in the scholarship were identified, viz., (1) an instrumentalist, individual-level focus; (2) a lack of consideration for diverse perspectives; and (3) an uncritical focus on young women. While the small body of qualitative research on LARC offers some valuable insights, when viewed from a sexual and reproductive justice perspective, it is not sufficiently user-centered or grounded within the reproductive politics surrounding contraceptive care and provision. Research is needed that draws on appropriate social theory; widens its focus beyond dominant groups; and is cognizant of the multi-level power relations surrounding LARC. Such work provides a nuanced picture of the complex social and contextual factors at play and inform person-centered approaches in sexual and reproductive health policy and programming.Item Youth Encounters with Internet Pornography: A Survey of Youth, Caregiver, and Educator Perspectives(Springer Science+Business Media LLC, 2022-04-01) Healy-Cullen S; Taylor JE; Ross K; Morison TDespite international inquiry regarding young people’s encounters with Internet pornography (IP), there is a lack of knowledge about how their caregivers (parents or guardians) and educators perceive these encounters in comparison to young people. Such knowledge is critical to understanding the synergies and discrepancies that might exist between these key stakeholder groups (youth, caregivers and educators) and across genders, to subsequently inform how to best support youth in navigating IP. To this end, the present study describes youth (16–18-year olds) encounters with IP, as well as caregiver and educator perceptions of these encounters. An online survey was completed by 256 youth and 217 caregivers and educators recruited from nine schools with an existing investment in sexuality education in Aotearoa, New Zealand. Similar to global trends, this group of young New Zealanders were familiar with IP and patterns of encounters were gendered. However, there were varied understandings between stakeholder groups and across genders as to why and how these encounters occur. Understanding the ways youth encounter IP—and exploring how caregivers and educators perceive these encounters—serves as a springboard for future research that considers the broader socio-cultural context within which these perspectives are constructed.Item How do youth, parents, and educators use discursive sexual scripts to make sense of youth engagement with internet pornography?(Taylor and Francis Group, 2022-12) Healy-Cullen S; Morison T; Ross K; Taylor JEIn this article, we explore how culturally available sexual scripts are drawn on to make meaning of young people’s engagement with internet pornography (IP). We draw on a version of sexual scripting theory developed by feminist discursive scholars to perform a critical thematic analysis of 24 interviews with parents, educators, and young people. We identify three main scripts commonly drawn on by participants to make sense of youth engagement with IP, namely: a script of harm, a heterosexual script, and a developmentalist script. These scripts, often interweaving with one another, were deployed in various ways, firstly, as ‘risk talk’ and, secondly, as ‘resistant talk’. While both adults and youth engaged with dominant (‘risk’) and alternative (‘resistant’) talk, adults primarily positioned youth within ‘risk talk’. We show how alternative ‘resistant talk’ disrupts common, scripted ways of accounting for youth engagement with IP in a way that demonstrates more nuanced sexual subjectivities – particularly among youth – than the traditional media effects paradigm acknowledges. Importantly, our findings show how, within discursive restraints, essentialized gender constructions can be resisted to position youth as agentic sexual subjects.Item Using reproductive justice as a theoretical lens in qualitative research in psychology(Taylor and Francis Group LLC, 2023) Morison TReproductive Justice has become somewhat of a buzzword, inspiring qualitative research on a range of sexual and reproductive issues. However, uptake in psychology has been somewhat slow, in part due to the absence of well-defined methodology and rigorous methods for applying a Reproductive Justice framework. Psychology research claiming a Reproductive Justice approach often lacks specificity regarding its underlying theoretical assumptions and how the chosen methodology enables Reproductive Justice analysis. Failing to engage with the theoretical foundations of Reproductive Justice or explicate how these inform one’s work can lead to underdeveloped application, deviation from the central principles, and misappropriation of Reproductive Justice Theory, thus failing to realise its radical potential. Accordingly, focusing on the application of Reproductive Justice in qualitative psychology research, I discuss three core theoretical antecedents of Reproductive Justice and present three corresponding approaches to application, illustrated with examples. The objective is to offer concrete analytical strategies for applying Reproductive Justice theory and to stimulate further thinking and discussion regarding how the theory might be fruitfully and rigorously used in qualitative research in psychology.Item Using Q-Methodology to Explore Stakeholder Views about Porn Literacy Education(Springer Nature Switzerland AG, 2022-06) Healy-Cullen S; Taylor JE; Morison T; Ross KIntroduction ‘Porn literacy education’ is emerging as a pedagogical strategy to support youth in navigating the new technological pornography landscape. However, the characteristics of effective porn literacy education according to those who will be most affected by it—young people, their caregivers and educators—is unknown. Yet, end user views are imperative to policy development in sexuality education worldwide. Methods Using Q-methodology, the commonalities and idiosyncrasies of these stakeholder views were explored. In 2019, 30 participants recruited through nine schools in New Zealand completed an online Q sort, and 24 also took part in a follow-up interview. Results There were two distinct discourses regarding porn literacy education among stakeholders: (i) the pragmatic response discourse and (ii) the harm mitigation discourse. Conclusions Stakeholders hold nuanced and ideologically charged perspectives about porn literacy education and educational initiatives more generally. It is therefore important that policy caters for these different perspectives and that a 'one-size-fits-all' policy approach is acknowledged as insufficient. Policy Implications It is crucial that policy development is guided by evidence about what constitutes effective sexuality education. The social discourses reported here are important to consider in developing policy about porn literacy education and require further research to more fully understand the potential of porn literacy as pedagogy.Item A performative-performance analytical approach: Infusing butlerian theory into the narrative-discursive method(SAGE Publications (UK and US), 2013-10-01) Morison T; Macleod CJudith Butler’s theory of performativity provides gender theorists with a rich theoretical language for thinking about gender. Despite this, Butlerian theory is difficult to apply, as Butler does not provide guidance on actual analysis of language use in context. In order to address this limitation, we suggest carefully supplementing performativity with the notion of performance in a manner that allows for the inclusion of relational specificities and the mechanisms through which gender, and gender trouble, occur. To do this, we turn to current developments within discursive psychology and narrative theory. We extend the narrative-discursive method proposed by Taylor and colleagues, infusing it with Butlerian theory in order to fashion a dual analytical lens, which we call the performativity-performance approach. We provide a brief example of how the proposed analytical process may be implemented.Item When veiled silences speak: Reflexivity, trouble and repair as methodological tools for interpreting the unspoken in discourse-based data(SAGE Publications (UK and US), 2014-12) Morison T; Macleod CResearchers who have attempted to make sense of silence in data have generally considered literal silences or such things as laughter. We consider the analysis of veiled silences where participants speak, but their speaking serves as ‘noise’ that ‘veils’, or masks, their inability or unwillingness to talk about a (potentially sensitive) topic. Extending Lisa Mazzei’s ‘problematic of silence’ by using our performativity–performance analytical method, we propose the purposeful use of ‘unusual conversational moves’, the deployment of researcher reflexivity and the analysis of trouble and repair as methods to expose taken-for-granted normative frameworks in veiled silences. We illustrate the potential of these research practices through reference to our study on men’s involvement in reproductive decision-making, in which participants demonstrated an inability to engage with the topic. The veiled silence that this produced, together with what was said, pointed to the operation of procreative heteronormativity.