Exploring the impact of perceived early marriage on women’s education and employment in Bangladesh through a mixed-methods study
Key Social Norms Take-aways: Social norms play a central role in shaping girls’ perceptions and decisions around early marriage, with norms around safety, family honor, gender roles, and acceptable relationships driving both parental pressure and girls’ own choices. Early marriage is often normalized and even desired as a socially sanctioned pathway to security, adulthood, and […]
A Social-Ecological Model to Explore Multi-Faceted Drivers of Child Marriage: An Iterative Qualitative Study in Southern Bangladesh
Key Social Norms Take-aways: Child marriage in southern Bangladesh is sustained by deeply entrenched and interconnected social norms—particularly those linking family honor to girls’ sexuality, expectations of female purity and obedience, and beliefs about girls’ limited social and economic roles. These norms constrain girls’ agency, justify parental control, and normalize early marriage as a protective […]
They’ll think you’re infected’: perceived barriers and facilitators of HIV/STI awareness and testing among young Rohingya refugee women in Bangladesh
Key Social Norms Take-aways: Social norms—particularly those linking HIV/STI testing to immorality, reinforcing male gatekeeping, and embedding stigma through religious and community surveillance—are central barriers to care. These norms operate across levels, shaping knowledge, restricting mobility, and discouraging service use. However, norms are also malleable: trusted female health workers, peer networks, and faith-aligned messaging can […]
Social norms and maternal health information-seeking behavior among adolescent girls: A qualitative study in a slum of Bangladesh
Key Social Norms Take-aways: Social norms strongly regulate adolescent girls’ access to maternal health information by reinforcing stigma, restricting discussion of reproductive health (especially for unmarried girls), and prioritizing family and community control over girls’ autonomy. Norms around early pregnancy after marriage, reliance on elder female relatives, and sanctions such as labeling girls as “immoral” […]
Social Norms and Female Labour Force Participation in Bangladesh: The Role of Social Expectations and Reference Networks
Key Social Norms Take-aways: Social norms around women’s employment in Bangladesh are shaped by social expectations within family reference networks, particularly the approval of fathers and husbands. Norms are not fixed; support for female employment changes when people perceive that others approve. Male family members’ attitudes are the most influential social cue, while peers and […]
Barriers to access and utilization of sexual and reproductive health services among young Rohingya refugees in Bangladesh
Key Social Norms Take-aways: Social and gender norms strongly shape young Rohingya refugees’ access to sexual and reproductive health (SRH) services. Norms that stigmatize premarital sex, frame SRH as appropriate only for married couples, and prioritize women’s reproductive roles limit young people’s ability to seek information and services. These norms interact with age, gender, and […]
Tipping Point Project: Report of the baseline study findings from Bangladesh
Key Social Norms Take-aways: This baseline study explicitly measures and analyzes both injunctive and descriptive norms across domains related to adolescent girls’ mobility, marriage, education, and decision-making in rural Bangladesh. The study defines and operationalizes social norms using structured survey items, capturing what respondents believe others expect of them (injunctive norms) and what they believe […]
Impact of Tipping Point Initiative, a social norms intervention, in addressing child marriage and other adolescent health and behavioral outcomes in a northern district of Bangladesh
Key Social Norms Take-aways: This impact evaluation explicitly examines how CARE’s Tipping Point program influenced injunctive and descriptive norms related to gender, marriage, and adolescent girls’ rights in rural Bangladesh. The study used a dedicated norms module to assess what adolescents and adults perceive others expect of them (injunctive norms) and what they believe others […]
The Cultural Context of Child Marriage in Nepal and Bangladesh: Findings from CARE’s Tipping Point Project Community Participatory Analysis
Key Social Norms Take-aways: CARE’s Tipping Point project reveals that deeply entrenched social norms—particularly those around female obedience, sexual purity, family honor, and the marriageability of girls—are among the most powerful forces driving child marriage in Bangladesh and Nepal. Parents often privately support delaying marriage but conform to perceived community expectations due to fear of […]
Delaying child marriage through community-based skills-development programs for girls: Results from a randomized controlled study in rural Bangladesh
Key Social Norms Take-aways: Although the study does not use formal social norms theory or measure norms directly, it clearly identifies normative influences—especially community expectations and social pressures—as key drivers of early marriage. In the background, the authors frame child marriage as shaped by family concerns about reputation, girls’ perceived readiness for adult roles, and […]