Abstract
Reports research into the sexual behaviour of UK teenagers at the margins of society, the project was a response to the Social Exclusion Unit’s brief to reduce the rate of teenage conceptions and to move teenage parents into education, training or employment. Focuses on the issues of recruiting teenagers for interview, methodology, and building trusting two‐way relationships with them so that sensitive subjects like condom use could be discussed. Characterises these teenage parents and their social status, and compares the UK with the rest of Europe: the former has a simultaneously puritanical and prurient culture. Finds that pairs of friends provided an open and honest environment for research, while journals and cameras provided to the teenage respondents were an essential part of the project. Finds that for them sex is often spontaneous, accompanied by alcohol, and invariably unprotected.