Exploring barriers, facilitators, and preferences for the uptake of contraceptive methods among adolescents aged 15-19 years in Neno district, Malawi: a qualitative study.
Key Social Norms Take-aways: Social norms are central to low adolescent contraceptive uptake in Neno district. Despite widespread recognition of the harms of early pregnancy, cultural and religious norms discouraging premarital sex and adolescent contraception often outweigh health concerns. Stigma associates contraceptive use, particularly among girls, with promiscuity, while masculine expectations linking fertility with virility […]
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 and young people are not simply constrained by social norms; they actively reproduce, resist, and negotiate them to balance sexual and reproductive health needs with social acceptance. Restrictive gender expectations, stigma, fear of community judgment, and concerns about confidentiality shape service use, while trusted peer networks provide important pathways for […]
Social ecosystems of trafficked conflict-related sexual violence survivors and their children: navigating and coping with intersecting stigma and violence in Nigeria and Iraq.
Key Social Norms Take-aways: Community-level social and gender norms are central drivers of stigma toward women and girls who survived trafficking and conflict-related sexual violence and their children born of war. Norms surrounding premarital sex and childbirth, virginity, purity, family honor, marriageability, paternity, and community identity interact with conflict-related fear and perceptions of affiliation with […]
A Qualitative Study on Youth and Healthcare Provider Perspectives on Youth Access to Sexual and Reproductive Health Services in Northern Ghana: Implications for a Peer-Led Intervention.
Key Social Norms Take-aways: Social and gender norms substantially shape young people’s access to sexual and reproductive health services in northern Ghana. Expectations of abstinence before marriage, religious discouragement, and stigma linking contraceptive use with promiscuity create fear of judgment and discourage care-seeking. Young women face particularly strong social consequences because of gendered expectations surrounding […]
Unsafe sexual practice and associated factors among adolescents in secondary schools in Gambella town, Ethiopia: a health belief model.
Key Social Norms Take-aways: Adolescents’ perceptions of what is socially acceptable around abstinence and condom use were significantly associated with unsafe sexual practices. In particular, low perceived social support for consistent condom use was associated with greater likelihood of unsafe sexual behavior, underscoring the importance of strengthening social environments that support condom use. The discussion […]
Where shame meets vulnerability: unintended adolescent pregnancy within the cultural context of the rural district of Rwandan Eastern Province.
Key Social Norms Take-aways: Social and cultural norms surrounding premarital adolescent sexuality, gender, and motherhood shape both the risk and consequences of unintended adolescent pregnancy in rural Rwanda. The discussion emphasizes that norms portraying adolescent sex as immoral and pregnancy as shameful can generate internalized and enacted stigma, silence girls’ sexual agency, reinforce gender and […]
Measuring social norms endorsement and normative influence on contraceptive use among youth (15-24) in northeastern Uganda.
Key Social Norms Take-aways: Social norms are strongly associated with contraceptive use among youth in Karamoja, Uganda, suggesting that improving access to contraceptive services alone may be insufficient. Supportive reproductive health norms and young people’s self-efficacy were the strongest drivers of contraceptive uptake, while restrictive gender expectations, contraceptive myths, harmful cultural practices, stigma, and punitive […]
Threats and deprivations as predictors of IPV perpetration: a cross-sectional analysis of a nationally representative sample of Bangladeshi young adults.
Key Social Norms Take-aways: Gender-inequitable attitudes were associated with childhood deprivation and, to a more limited extent, intimate partner violence perpetration. However, most gender-attitude domains did not independently predict perpetration after adjustment; only more equitable attitudes about women’s career choices were associated with lower odds of violence. The discussion emphasizes that intimate partner violence is […]
Psychometric validation of a novel community norms measure among youth, Eswatini Violence Against Children and Youth Survey, 2022.
Key Social Norms Take-aways: This study demonstrates the feasibility of directly measuring community-level social norms among adolescents and young adults rather than relying on individual attitudes or beliefs as proxies. The validated measure captures both descriptive and injunctive norms, uses the community as the reference group, and focuses on unequal expectations surrounding domestic labor and […]
Socio-ecological influences on sexual and reproductive health service use: Young adults and provider perspectives from Soshanguve, South Africa.
Key Social Norms Take-aways: Social norms strongly shape young adults’ use of sexual and reproductive health services. Conservative cultural and religious norms can make sexual health discussions taboo, while peer and masculinity norms may encourage sexual risk-taking, discourage condom use, and stigmatize care-seeking. Fear of being judged as promiscuous or immoral further reinforces secrecy and […]