IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/socmed/v68y2009i11p2029-2036.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

"I couldn't say, I'm not a girl" - Adolescents talk about gender and marijuana use

Author

Listed:
  • Haines, Rebecca J.
  • Johnson, Joy L.
  • Carter, Connie I.
  • Arora, Kamal

Abstract

In this paper we report on findings from a qualitative study of marijuana use by adolescents in two communities in British Columbia, Canada. During 2005 and 2006, 45 interviews were carried out at schools with students aged 13-18, with an aim of understanding how adolescents perceive their experiences with marijuana to be shaped by gender. While it has been established that patterns of use differ for girls and boys, there is relatively little qualitative research addressing marijuana smoking as gendered social practice. Drawing from contemporary social theories of gender our analysis explores the normative functions of gender discourse within adolescents' narratives, situating their descriptions of marijuana use within the context of the research interview and within the social contexts of drug use. The results highlight the challenges we encountered in asking about gender during one-to-one interviews, juxtaposed with examples from the narratives that illustrate how boys and girls use marijuana as a way of "doing" gender. To conclude, we suggest how our findings can inform the design of gender-specific health messaging on adolescent marijuana use.

Suggested Citation

  • Haines, Rebecca J. & Johnson, Joy L. & Carter, Connie I. & Arora, Kamal, 2009. ""I couldn't say, I'm not a girl" - Adolescents talk about gender and marijuana use," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 68(11), pages 2029-2036, June.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:68:y:2009:i:11:p:2029-2036
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277-9536(09)00153-1
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Courtenay, Will H., 2000. "Constructions of masculinity and their influence on men's well-being: a theory of gender and health," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 50(10), pages 1385-1401, May.
    2. Johnson, Joy L. & Bottorff, Joan L. & Moffat, Barbara & Ratner, Pamela A. & Shoveller, Jean A. & Lovato, Chris Y., 2003. "Tobacco dependence: adolescents' perspectives on the need to smoke," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 56(7), pages 1481-1492, April.
    3. Emslie, Carol & Ridge, Damien & Ziebland, Sue & Hunt, Kate, 2006. "Men's accounts of depression: Reconstructing or resisting hegemonic masculinity?," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 62(9), pages 2246-2257, May.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Emslie, Carol & Browne, Susan & MacLeod, Una & Rozmovits, Linda & Mitchell, Elizabeth & Ziebland, Sue, 2009. "'Getting through' not 'going under': A qualitative study of gender and spousal support after diagnosis with colorectal cancer," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 68(6), pages 1169-1175, March.
    2. Green, Gill & Emslie, Carol & O'Neill, Dan & Hunt, Kate & Walker, Steven, 2010. "Exploring the ambiguities of masculinity in accounts of emotional distress in the military among young ex-servicemen," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 71(8), pages 1480-1488, October.
    3. Oliffe, John L. & Kelly, Mary T. & Bottorff, Joan L. & Johnson, Joy L. & Wong, Sabrina T., 2011. ""He's more typically female because he's not afraid to cry": Connecting heterosexual gender relations and men's depression," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 73(5), pages 775-782, September.
    4. Cleary, Anne, 2012. "Suicidal action, emotional expression, and the performance of masculinities," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 74(4), pages 498-505.
    5. Aimzhan Iztayeva, 2021. "Custodial Single Fathers before and during the COVID-19 Crisis: Work, Care, and Well-Being," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 10(3), pages 1-23, March.
    6. Williams, Robert Alan, 2007. "Masculinities fathering and health: The experiences of African-Caribbean and white working class fathers," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 64(2), pages 338-349, January.
    7. Kate Hunt & Sally Wyke & Christopher Bunn & Craig Donnachie & Nicky Reid & Cindy M. Gray, 2020. "Scale-Up and Scale-Out of a Gender-Sensitized Weight Management and Healthy Living Program Delivered to Overweight Men via Professional Sports Clubs: The Wider Implementation of Football Fans in Train," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 17(2), pages 1-32, January.
    8. Quan Gao & Orlando Woods & Xiaomei Cai, 2021. "The Influence of Masculinity and the Moderating Role of Religion on the Workplace Well-Being of Factory Workers in China," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 18(12), pages 1-16, June.
    9. Cindy L. Cain, 2017. "Boundaried Caring and Gendered Emotion Management in Hospice Work," Gender, Work and Organization, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 24(4), pages 345-359, July.
    10. Emslie, Carol & Hunt, Kate, 2008. "The weaker sex? Exploring lay understandings of gender differences in life expectancy: A qualitative study," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 67(5), pages 808-816, September.
    11. Sánchez-Sandoval, Yolanda & Aragón, Claudia & Verdugo, Laura, 2022. "Future expectations of adolescents in Residential Care: The role of self-perceptions," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 143(C).
    12. Pollitt, Amanda M. & Donnelly, Rachel & Mernitz, Sara E. & Umberson, Debra, 2020. "Differences in how spouses influence each other's alcohol use in same- and different-sex marriages: A daily diary study," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 264(C).
    13. Michael Schreuders & Nikha T. Krooneman & Bas Van den Putte & Anton E. Kunst, 2018. "Boy Smokers’ Rationalisations for Engaging in Potentially Fatal Behaviour: In-Depth Interviews in The Netherlands," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 15(4), pages 1-13, April.
    14. Melander, Stina, 2023. "Different logics of pain: the gendered dimension of chronic pain in a relational setting," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 335(C).
    15. Wiklund, Maria & Bengs, Carita & Malmgren-Olsson, Eva-Britt & Öhman, Ann, 2010. "Young women facing multiple and intersecting stressors of modernity, gender orders and youth," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 71(9), pages 1567-1575, November.
    16. Parker, Rhiannon & Larkin, Theresa & Cockburn, Jon, 2017. "A visual analysis of gender bias in contemporary anatomy textbooks," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 180(C), pages 106-113.
    17. Michelle Calvarese, 2015. "The Effect of Gender on Stress Factors: An Exploratory Study among University Students," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 4(4), pages 1-8, November.
    18. Oliffe, John, 2005. "Constructions of masculinity following prostatectomy-induced impotence," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 60(10), pages 2249-2259, May.
    19. Madsen, Julian & Jobson, Laura & Slewa-Younan, Shameran & Li, Haoxiang & King, Kylie, 2024. "Mental health literacy among Arab men living in high-income Western countries: A systematic review and narrative synthesis," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 346(C).
    20. Hatcher, Abigail M. & Gibbs, Andrew & McBride, Ruari-Santiago & Rebombo, Dumisani & Khumalo, Mzwakhe & Christofides, Nicola J., 2022. "Gendered syndemic of intimate partner violence, alcohol misuse, and HIV risk among peri-urban, heterosexual men in South Africa," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 295(C).

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:68:y:2009:i:11:p:2029-2036. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/315/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.