Roslyn Munro

Citation

Thesis Title
Journeys through adolescence: Narratives of teenage boys

Read article at Massey Research Online:

Contemporary youth discourses tend to frame teenage boys as ‘trouble’ and ‘troubled’, yet there has been little investigation into how boys make sense of their everyday social contexts. Ms Munro’s research explored ways that teenage boys do identity work and negotiate their social relationships. Her participants were male high school students who provided narrative accounts of personally significant events during their adolescent years. The research showed boys to be competent social actors who construct multiple identities and draw on resources afforded by their social, cultural, and institutional connections. Insights were generated into ways that they are influenced by, and respond to, age and gender stereotypes. Ms Munro’s research offers ideas for how clinical psychologists may work more effectively with teenage boys by privileging meanings boys attach to their experiences and deconstructing ‘common-sense’ understandings of adolescence and adolescent boys.

Supervisors
Professor Kerry Chamberlain
Dr Kerry Gibson