Project leader: Prof Dr Karin Flaake

The project focussed on

• social images of female physicality and their significance for young women's bodily experiences;

• the often unconscious messages contained in family interactions, through which the physical changes in young women during puberty are given "social meaning";

• the specific adolescent conflicts of young women from families with an immigrant background;

• the adolescence of young men and the dynamics in families triggered by the son's puberty with the concepts of masculinity contained therein.

A series of publications emerged from the projects, in one project also together with students.
Following on from the central findings of the study on the adolescence of young men, from the summer semester of 2006 onwards, the development opportunities of boys and young men whose fathers were involved in childcare at an early age were investigated - a subject area on which there have been hardly any studies, even internationally.

Key publications :

Flaake, Karin (2001): Body, Sexuality and Gender. Studies on the adolescence of young women, Gießen

Blanke, Mechthild/Flaake, Karin (2002): "In any case, I want to earn respect through my achievements". Young women who have come from Russia. Reports of the Centre for Intercultural Women's and Gender Studies, No. 4, October/02

Flaake, Karin (2005): Young men, adolescence and family relationships. In: King, Vera/Flaake, Karin (eds.): Male Adolescence. Socialisation and educational processes between childhood and adulthood. Frankfurt a. M./New York, 99 - 120