How Is Developing the Sense of Belonging in Iranian Adolescent Girls? A Qualitative Study

BACKGROUND: Communicating with adolescents is associated with many challenges for parents and healthcare providers. AIM: This qualitative study was conducted for exploring the sense of belonging in Iranian adolescent girls. METHODS: In this study, deep semi-structured interviews were carried out with 27 adolescent girls, 10 experts, and 10 parents. Purposeful sampling was used and continued until data saturation. The data were coded and categorised through a conventional content analysis method by MAXQDA 10. RESULTS: Three main categories were obtained from the analysis of the participants’ descriptions: “family; a haven of tranquillity”, “dominated by peers”, and “concerns about differences in gender socialization”. According to our results, most of the girls achieved calmness through being emotionally accepted by their families. But this sense of belonging and tranquillity was shaken by their peers’ showing off, in a way that adolescent girls were always struggling to gain acceptance among their peers. Also for fear of being rejected by their peers’ group, they sometimes began to make friends with the opposite sex. Meanwhile, traditional attitudes towards gender roles and adolescent girls’ feelings about their lower social participation as compared to that of boys had also led to their concern about differences in gender socialization and a lower sense of community belonging among some adolescent girls. CONCLUSION: Adequate parental education and the proper management of girls’ interactions with the family and society can play an important role in the development of a sense of belonging among adolescent girls.