Date of Award
2011
Degree Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Science
Program
Health and Rehabilitation Sciences
Supervisor
Dr. Jessica Polzer
Second Advisor
Dr. Anita Kothari
Abstract
This thesis examines young women’s decision-making regarding Human Papillomavirus (HPV) vaccination. Using a narrative approach, five young women were asked to share their stories of how they came to be or not be vaccinated. Two in-depth interviews were used to elicit participants’ stories, and an overall narrative for each young woman was constructed. The five individual narratives reveal a number of themes that capture the diversity of young women’s decision-making experiences and point to the complex ways in which young women are negotiating decisions regarding vaccination. Within this thesis, I take a critical stance on the topic of HPV vaccine decision-making in order to illuminate how young women’s decisions are embedded within broader social and discursive contexts. This critical approach to understanding participant narratives was informed by a strong sensitivity to conceptual frames of medicalization, healthism, and neo-medicalization and dominant discourses related to health risk and individual responsibility.
Recommended Citation
Mancuso, Francesca V., "YOUNG WOMEN’S NARRATIVES OF DECISION-MAKING ABOUT HUMAN PAPILLOMAVIRUS VACCINATION" (2011). Digitized Theses. 3612.
https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/digitizedtheses/3612