Sexual and reproductive health challenges facing minority ethnic girls in Vietnam: a photovoice study.

This paper describes a study that examined the challenges faced by Vietnamese ethnic minority girls regarding their sexual and reproductive health. The study employed photovoice, a research method which treats photographs and the accompanying stories provided by participants as qualitative data. Twenty-six (26) minority ethnic girls took photographs of aspects of their lives as a way of documenting the challenges, difficulties and barriers that they faced in looking after their sexual and reproductive health. Findings indicated limited access to sexual health knowledge, the exclusion of young people from mainly adult-focused sexual and reproductive health services in minority ethnic communities and the prevalence of cultural beliefs and practices that negatively affected young people's sexual and reproductive health. The intersection of ethnicity, age and gender places Vietnamese ethnic minority girls at risk, as everyday practices informed by culture and tradition curtail their access to the limited sexual and reproductive health information and services available in their communities. Understanding these challenges is needed in developing appropriate policies, programmes and services aimed at enhancing the sexual and reproductive health of this segment of the population.

Correlates of Attitudes toward Sexual Minorities among Vietnamese Social Work Practitioners.

This article examines the correlates of Vietnamese social work practitioners' attitudes toward individuals who identify as lesbian or gay. This study, among the very few studies on the general topic in non-Western contexts and the first of its kind in Vietnam, investigates correlates of attitudes toward sexual minorities that are known in the literature. The data are drawn from a survey of 292 Vietnamese social work practitioners. The findings suggest that the attitudes of Vietnamese social work practitioners are associated with gender, educational attainment, level of social work education, practice experience, practice sector, professional contact with sexual minority clients, personal contact with sexual minorities, exposure to content on sexual minorities in social work courses and professional development activities, and independent learning activities about sexual minorities but not with age, religious affiliation, and marital status. Implications for social work education and practice are considered.