Taking debates about the roles of structure and agency in health as a lens, this essay asks how Critical Realist and Feminist Intersectional approaches might inform health interventions research. Despite recognition of multiple determinants of health, health problems are often thought of as individual and interventions, in turn, target risky individual behaviours. Such approaches are rooted in a liberal model of personhood. This paper critiques enduring individualist assumptions linked to Western liberal underpinnings embedded in health interventions. It posits the need to include a robust conception of the social world in which change depends on shifting power relations, and individual agency is shaped by power as well as individual will. We propose preliminary steps for undertaking critical realist intersectional interventions research.

Linked Comment: Citrome. 2015; 69: 267–8. Linked Comment: Mayes . 2015; 69: 384–5. Linked Comment: Stossel . 2015; 69: 385–6.

Sexual debut represents a developmental transition that holds possibility for growth and for risk. Family and neighborhood may impact timing of debut. This qualitative study examined family strategies (e.g., moving, parental monitoring), perceptions of neighborhood, and attitudes about sex and sexual debut among sexually experienced and inexperienced African American adolescent females living in disadvantaged urban neighborhoods. Findings show that more familial strategies were reported by sexually inexperienced females, suggesting that strategies may delay sexual debut. Furthermore, experiences with neighborhood violence related to attitudes about sex and sexual debut, suggesting a linkage between death anxiety and sexual debut among female youth.

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