Bad girl and unmet family planning need among Sub-Saharan African adolescents: the role of sexual and reproductive health stigma
Key Social Norms Take-aways: Gendered social norms that shame adolescent girls for being sexually active are central to the stigma they face. These norms create major barriers to accessing family planning and must be directly challenged through stigma-reduction strategies. Objectives: This study examined how sexual and reproductive health (SRH) stigma affects adolescent girls’ ability to […]
Barriers to accessing maternal health care amongst pregnant adolescents in South Africa: a qualitative study
Key Social Norms Take-aways: This study demonstrates how entrenched social norms surrounding adolescent sexuality and gender roles in South Africa create significant barriers to accessing maternal health care for pregnant adolescents. Norms that frame adolescent pregnancy as shameful and deviant—particularly outside of marriage—generate fear, guilt, and stigma, which young women internalize. These norms are reinforced […]
Approaches to Regulating Adolescent Sexual Behavior in Ghana: Qualitative Evidence from Somanya and Adidome
Key Social Norms Take-aways: The study highlights how collective community norms — especially informal surveillance and shared social responsibility — play a key role in delaying adolescent sexual behavior. In Adidome, strong communal norms and active neighborhood monitoring contributed to lower HIV rates, while in Somanya, weakened cultural practices and lower community cohesion were linked […]
Area-Level Normative Social Context and Intimate Partner Physical Violence in Mozambique
Key Social Norms Take-aways: This study demonstrates that normative social contexts—particularly community-level religious norms, early marriage practices, and female education—significantly shape both women’s acceptance of spousal abuse and their risk of experiencing intimate partner physical violence (IPV) in Mozambique. The findings highlight that religious norms in some contexts may protect against IPV acceptance, while early […]
Association of collective attitudes and contraceptive practice in nine sub-Saharan African countries
Key Social Norms Take-aways: Community-level gender norms—specifically permissive attitudes toward premarital sex and accepting attitudes toward wife-beating—significantly influence contraceptive use and demand satisfaction among women in sub-Saharan Africa. Permissive norms are associated with greater contraceptive use, while norms accepting wife-beating are linked to lower use. Addressing these norms is key to improving reproductive health outcomes. […]
Associations between village-level norms on marital age and marital choice outcomes among adolescent wives in rural Niger.
Key Social Norms Take-aways: This study shows that addressing early and forced marriage in Niger requires shifting the broader social environment — particularly the norms among men that shape marital practices — rather than only focusing on girls’ empowerment or individual beliefs. While engaging men is crucial for changing norms, interventions must be designed carefully […]
Age-disparate and intergenerational sex partnerships and HIV: the role of gender norms among adolescent girls and young women in Malawi.
Key Social Norms Take-aways: Inequitable gender norms—such as male control over women’s healthcare decisions, tolerance of violence, and stigmatization of sexually active women—greatly magnify HIV risks for AGYW in age-mixing relationships. Programs must challenge these harmful norms while promoting girls’ autonomy, education, and economic opportunities to effectively reduce HIV vulnerability. Objectives: This study examined how […]
An exploration of gender-based violence in eastern Myanmar in the context of political transition: findings from a qualitative sexual and reproductive health assessment.
Key Social Norms Take-aways: This study highlights the persistent and deeply embedded gender norms in eastern Myanmar that sustain gender-based violence (GBV) and limit women’s and girls’ sexual and reproductive health (SRH) rights, despite political transitions. Norms surrounding male dominance, early marriage, domestic violence, and restrictions on adolescent girls’ access to SRH services were consistently […]
Applying a gender lens to social norms, couple communication and decision making to increase modern contraceptive use in Ethiopia, a mixed methods study
Key Social Norms Take-aways: This study shows that community-based interventions targeting young men can shift harmful gender norms and reduce intimate partner violence (IPV). At baseline, participants across all three study arms expressed substantial support for inequitable norms. For example, 58% agreed that a woman should tolerate violence to keep her family together, and half […]
Adolescent girls trapped in early marriage social norm in rural Ethiopia: A vignette-based qualitative exploration
Key Social Norms Take-aways: Early marriage in rural Ethiopia is upheld by strong social norms enforced by peers, parents, marriage brokers, and community members. Girls are expected to accept early marriage proposals—often seen as rare opportunities—and refusal can result in stigma, isolation, or even coercion. These norms persist due to conditional preferences: individuals conform because […]