Exploring young women’s menstruation-related challenges in Uttar Pradesh, India, using the socio-ecological framework
Key Social Norms Take-aways: This study highlights how entrenched social norms — including menstrual stigma, silence, and restrictive gender expectations — profoundly shape girls’ experiences and limit their access to support and services. Effective interventions must address these social norms directly by engaging not just girls but also families, communities, schools, and boys and men, […]
Factors associated with contraceptive use in rural Nepal: Gender and decision-making
Key Social Norms Take-aways: Gender roles, particularly those that support shared responsibility for child-rearing, play a significant role in contraceptive use among rural couples in Nepal. While mutual spousal decision-making is often assumed to influence contraceptive uptake, this study found limited direct association. Instead, more equitable gender norms—such as men contributing to childcare and not […]
Factors associated with gender equality among church-going young men in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo: A cross-sectional study
Key Social Norms Take-aways: This study reveals that church-going young men in Kinshasa, DRC, largely endorse inequitable gender norms, including male dominance in the home, rigid views on male sexuality, and acceptance of violence against women. While some supported equitable norms—such as joint decision-making on family planning—dominant attitudes aligned with patriarchal, heteronormative views of masculinity. […]
Factors associated with sexual and reproductive health stigma among adolescent girls in Ghana
Key Social Norms Take-aways: The study highlights how pervasive gendered social norms frame adolescent sexuality as shameful and dangerous. These norms fuel stigma around contraception, pregnancy, and SRH care-seeking. Interventions must challenge these beliefs through comprehensive SRH education, supportive dialogue, and community-wide norm change efforts that empower girls with information, confidence, and access to services. […]
Feasibility of an HIV self-testing intervention: a formative qualitative study among individuals, community leaders, and HIV testing experts in northern Tanzania
Key Social Norms Take-aways: Supportive social norms—including beliefs that peers and family members would approve of HIV self-testing (HIVST)—may help drive uptake among high-risk populations in Tanzania. However, social norms were not central in participants’ discussions, suggesting that personal agency and privacy may be more decisive factors in self-testing behavior. Still, leveraging influential community leaders […]
Exploring social norms around reproductive health affecting unmarried adolescent girls and young women in Burundi
Key Social Norms Take-aways: This study illustrates how deeply entrenched gender norms in Burundi shape adolescent sexual and reproductive health outcomes. Eight social norms emerged as having the greatest influence: sexuality and reproductive health are not discussed openly in households or the community, and it is not considered socially acceptable to do so; it is […]
Exploring stigma and social norms in women’s abortion experiences and their expectations of care
Key Social Norms Take-aways: Abortion stigma is deeply intertwined with social norms around female sexuality, marriage, and motherhood. In both Kenya and India, community disapproval and cultural taboos contribute to secrecy, fear, and delayed care-seeking. Interventions must address these norms by promoting respectful, youth-friendly, and rights-based services. Ensuring privacy, providing accurate information, and challenging harmful […]
Exploring the socio-ecological levels for prevention of sexual risk behaviours of the youth in uMgungundlovu District Municipality, KwaZulu-Natal
Key Social Norms Take-aways: Social norms that endorse male dominance, multiple partnerships, and early sexual activity significantly shape youth sexual behaviours in uMgungundlovu, KwaZulu-Natal. These norms, entrenched across family, community, and institutional levels, particularly disadvantage girls, fostering gender inequality, intimate partner violence, and limited sexual agency. The findings stress that interventions must address not just […]
Examining Masculinities to Inform Gender-Transformative Violence Prevention Programs: Qualitative Findings From Rakai, Uganda.
Key Social Norms Take-aways: This study demonstrates that two dominant, context-dependent masculine norms—“reputation” (cool masculinity) and “respectability” (responsible masculinity)—shape men’s identities and justify violence against women in Rakai, Uganda. Masculinity tied to sexual prowess and dominance over women is socially rewarded among peers, while responsibility, marriage, and fatherhood are valued by the broader community. Both […]
Exploring perceptions of gender roles amongst sexually active adolescents in rural KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.
Key Social Norms Take-aways: The study highlights that adolescent SRH vulnerabilities are deeply embedded in gendered social norms that dictate how young people see themselves and their roles. Effective interventions need to actively question and reshape these norms, engaging not only adolescents but also families and communities, to create supportive environments where young people can […]