Qualitative evaluation of an edutainment intervention to prevent age-disparate transactional sex in Tanzania: Changes in educational aspirations and gender equitable attitudes towards work
Key Social Norms Take-aways: The study demonstrates that edutainment can shift gender norms by modeling alternative roles and behaviors, helping to create an enabling environment where girls’ education is prioritized and restrictive norms—such as male provider expectations and limitations on women’s work—are challenged. These normative shifts matter because they address underlying drivers of age-disparate transactional […]
Engaging boys as “Structured Allies” to prevent gender-based violence against girls: Results from the CARE Tipping Point Initiative in Nepal
Key Social Norms Take-aways: The study underscores that harmful gender norms—particularly those that normalize male dominance, tolerate sexual harassment, and restrict girls’ agency—are key drivers of sexual bullying and gender harassment (SBGH) in Nepal. Transforming these norms requires engaging boys not just as individuals but as “structured allies” within communities to shift both injunctive norms […]
Perceptions of sexual violence among adolescents and youth in Senegal and Ghana: Insights into normalization, victim-blaming and prospective behavior
Key Social Norms Take-aways: Social norms—especially those related to gender roles, victim-blaming, and the normalization of sexual violence—strongly shape how adolescents and youth understand and respond to sexual violence in Senegal and Ghana. Norms that frame violence as a private matter, legitimize male dominance, and place responsibility on victims contribute to silence and underreporting. The […]
Intervention-amenable factors associated with lack of HPV vaccination in Kenya: Results from a large national phone survey.
Key Social Norms Take-aways: Social norms—particularly perceptions of what other parents are doing (descriptive norms) and the extent of social interaction around vaccination—play a critical role in HPV vaccine uptake. The study highlights that when caregivers believe that other parents are vaccinating their daughters, and when they engage in conversations about vaccination within their social […]
“The child of your fellow is your child”: Building on existing protective norms to engage men as caregivers; qualitative findings from an exploratory evaluation of an edutainment intervention to prevent age-disparate transactional sex
Key Social Norms Take-aways: Social norms—particularly those related to gender roles, masculinity, caregiving, and community responsibility—can be effectively shifted by building on existing positive and protective norms rather than introducing entirely new ones. The discussion emphasizes that norms positioning men primarily as financial providers can be expanded to include emotional engagement, caregiving, and active involvement […]
Disability and Bullying Victimization Among Adolescents in Nepal: The Influence of Community Gender Norms
Key Social Norms Take-aways: Community gender norms—particularly those reinforcing gender inequality, violence acceptability, and rigid gender roles—shape adolescents’ vulnerability to bullying by influencing how “difference” (such as disability) is perceived and sanctioned. The discussion highlights that bullying operates as a mechanism for enforcing social norms, where adolescents with disabilities are seen as deviating from dominant […]
Exploring gender stereotypes and norms among peri-urban very young adolescents in Zimbabwe using participatory and qualitative approaches
Key Social Norms Take-aways: Gender norms among very young adolescents (VYAs) in peri-urban Zimbabwe are deeply embedded yet contested, shaping sexual behavior, resource allocation, and gendered expectations from an early age. Harmful norms—such as acceptance of boys’ sexual dominance, stigma around menstruation, and prioritization of boys’ education—are reinforced by families and communities, but adolescents themselves […]
Adolescents’ agency in negotiating social norms governing sexual and reproductive health services among the Nyasa people of Rural Tanzania
Key Social Norms Take-aways: Adolescents are not passive recipients of restrictive social and gender norms but actively navigate them through strategies of reproduction, resistance, and negotiation. Social norms—particularly stigma adolescent sexuality, gendered expectations, and fear of community judgement—strongly constrain access to sexual and reproductive health services (SRHS). However, adolescents exercise agency through covert service use, […]
‘Our options are limited, so we get married:’ girls, early marriage and health risks in rural Zimbabwe
Key Social Norms Take-aways: Social norms—particularly heteropatriarchal gender norms, religious doctrines, and stigma surrounding unmarried girls—play a central role in driving early marriage, often outweighing perceived health risks. Norms linking girls’ value to sexual purity, marriageability, and obedience to male authority figures create a “risk environment” where social exclusion is feared more than health consequences, […]
Tackling the Triple Threat in Kenya: Factors Associated with Protection against HIV Risk, Gender-Based Violence, and Pregnancy among Adolescent Girls and Young Women
Key Social Norms Take-aways: Gender norms—specifically gender-equitable attitudes—play a central protective role in reducing multiple risks faced by adolescent girls and young women (AGYW), including intimate partner violence and adolescent pregnancy. When combined with supportive relational norms (parental monitoring) and structural conditions (food security), these factors act synergistically as “development accelerators,” highlighting that shifting norms […]