Deconstructing SRH with Mayan Indigenous-Afro-descendant adolescents: perspective of intersectional gender and decolonizing mental health

 

This project is part of a cohort of new research projects in Latin America and the Caribbean and the Middle East and North Africa to support research on the understudied area of the interface between mental health and sexual and reproductive health and rights. It focusses on addressing sexual and reproductive health (SRH) in Mayan Indigenous and Afro-descendant adolescents and youth under 21 years of age, of any sexual and gender identity, in Mexico.

It hypothesizes that structural discrimination limits this population’s life opportunities with high costs to their mental health, and that unmet needs linked to sexual and reproductive rights develop in contexts of poverty, social vulnerability and violence. SRH care services play an important role as they provide prevention activities and care. These services, however, are performed from a perspective of biomedical knowledge and practices that impose an inadequate, single way of thinking and potentially violate ethnic identity.

The research aims to learn from and document the ethnic, sexual and gender intersectional identity of Mayan and Afro-descendant adolescent and youth, and the meanings they give to SRH, in order to understand what their information and care needs are, as well as the social repercussions related to their physical and mental well-being. The implementation research approach will use mixed methods and the research outcomes aim to inform and result in comprehensive and respectful health services. The findings will help promote adolescent participation with local health systems to make the latter more inclusive and equitable.