Gender conceptions in adolescents' narratives

Adolescence implicates redefinition of identity, including gender dimension. The goal of this research was to identify teenagers' conceptions about what it means to be a man and a woman through their own narratives. Forty-one teenagers, between 14 and 15 years old, who were students from a public school and from a private school both located in the city of Porto Alegre/RS, Brazil, participated in the study. Through the MSN chat software, 6 synchronous online focus groups were formed: 2 groups of male adolescents, 2 of female adolescents, and 2 of mixed genders. The narratives produced by the interaction in the groups were analyzed by Content Analysis that revealed a predominance of traditional gender roles.

narrative; gender; adolescence; synchronous online focus groups