ADOLESCENCE

• Young women’s health and relationships

• Health adjustment to a diagnosis of Diverse Sexual and Reproductive Development

• Sexual and physical safety within intimate relationships.

• Pathways to enable young women to resist specific gender practices that decrease their well being

• Pathways that promote well-being both within and outside of being an intimate partner/girlfriend.

I completed a PhD in the area of young women, wellbeing, intimate relationships and treatment. This included researching young women’s idea’s about themselves in intimate relationships. The purpose of this was to improve treatment protocols for young people who identified as female but were born with sexual and reproductive differences that often resulted in them having a negative sense of self in terms of wanting an intimate partner. Through this process I was also able to record how young women form peer groups with very explicit rules that could either lead to bullying or increased female resilience in ‘at risk’ contexts.