Maria Strömbäck

'Girls need to strengthen each other as a group': experiences from a gender-sensitive stress management intervention by youth-friendly Swedish health services - a qualitative study

BackgroundMental health problems among young people, and girls and young women in particular, are a well-known health problem. Such gendered mental health patterns are also seen in conjunction with stress-related problems, such as anxiety and depression and psychosomatic complaints. Thus, intervention models tailored to the health care situation experienced by young women within a gendered and sociocultural context are needed. This qualitative study aims to illuminate young women’s experiences of participating in a body-based, gender-sensitive stress management group intervention by youth-friendly health services in northern Sweden.MethodsA physiotherapeutic body-based, health-promoting, gender-sensitive stress management intervention was created by youth-friendly Swedish health services. The stress management courses (n = 7) consisted of eight sessions, each lasting about two hours, and were led by the physiotherapist at the youth centre. The content in the intervention had a gender-sensitive approach, combining reflective discussions; short general lectures on, for example, stress and pressures related to body ideals; and physiotherapeutic methods, including body awareness and relaxation. Follow-up interviews were carried out with 32 young women (17–25 years of age) after they had completed the intervention. The data were analysed with qualitative content analysis.ResultsThe overall results of our interview analysis suggest that the stress management course we evaluated facilitated ‘a space for gendered and embodied empowerment in a hectic life’, implying that it both contributed to a sense of individual growth and allowed participants to unburden themselves of stress problems within a trustful and supportive context. Participants’ narrated experiences of ‘finding a social oasis to challenge gendered expectations’, ‘being bodily empowered’, and ‘altering gendered positions and stance to life’ point to empowering processes of change that allowed them to cope with distress, despite sometimes continuously stressful life situations. This intervention also decreased stress-related symptoms such as anxiousness, restlessness, muscle tension, aches and pains, fatigue, and impaired sleep.ConclusionsThe participants’ experiences of the intervention as a safe and exploratory space for gendered collective understanding and embodied empowerment further indicates the need to develop gender-sensitive interventions to reduce individualisation of health problems and instead encourage spaces for collective support, action, and change.

The Corporeality of Living Stressful Femininity A Gender–Theoretical Analysis of Young Swedish Women’s Stress Experiences

This article analyzes young Swedish women’s experiences of living stressful femininity from an existentialist gender theoretical perspective. The study is based on qualitative interviews with 25 women, aged 17–25, who had registered for a stress management course at a youth health centre. Our analysis suggests that their experiences of stress can be related to the renegotiation of gender constructions that have occurred within the Swedish society. The young female subject can be viewed as living through a historic break between a historical position as a subordinated ‘Other’ while simultaneously having to navigate within contemporary discourses of successful femininity. The doing of normative femininity resulted in an exhausting and draining self-evaluating circle. The experiences of having a painful and collapsing body led to a sense of loss of access to and confidence in their bodies. This should be understood as a loss both of subjectivity and connectedness with the corporeality of existence.

Gender-sensitive and youth-friendly physiotherapy: Steps toward a stress management intervention for girls and young women.

ABSTRACT This article describes and evaluates initial steps of a gender-sensitive, youth-friendly group intervention model designed for teenage girls and young women who experience stress-related or psychosomatic problems. Fifty-four young women (16–25 years of age) participated in a gender-sensitive physiotherapy stress management course at a youth health center. Inclusion criteria were self-defined stress-related problems and a wish to participate in the group intervention. Measurements of aspects of body perception, self-image, multiple somatic problems, and mental health symptom areas were assessed both before and after intervention with the Body Perception Questionnaire ad modum Schiöler, social analysis of social behavior, and Adult Self-Report scale. Significant positive changes were found in aspects of body perception, self-image, and mental health and somatic symptoms. The changes were most significant in lower internalization of anxiety and depression symptoms. Symptoms such as headaches and sleeping problems decreased. Participants were more satisfied with their bodies and more able to listen to body signals. Among cognitive issues, significant change occurred in thought problems, but not in attention problems. The intervention model needs further evaluation in controlled trials, but is promising and should be developed further in other physiotherapy settings and subgroups of young people.