Capitalising on aspirations of adolescent girls and young women to reduce their sexual health risks: Implications for HIV prevention.
Key Social Norms Take-aways: Social norms around femininity, peer status, and marriage heavily dictate what AGYW perceive as achievable or desirable. Programs must help girls reconcile short-term needs with long-term goals while addressing structural barriers and providing realistic pathways to their dreams. Objectives: This study explored the aspirations of adolescent girls and young women (AGYW) […]
Centering female agency while investigating contraceptive use: A case study in Agincourt, South Africa
Key Social Norms Take-aways: This study illustrates how young women in rural South Africa navigate deeply embedded social norms surrounding premarital fertility, contraceptive use, and abortion. While community norms stigmatize adolescent sexual activity and pregnancy, women demonstrate significant agency in managing their reproductive health. Contraceptive use is framed as a personal responsibility, often requiring young […]
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 […]
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-led marriage in Somaliland and Puntland: A surprising interaction of agency and social norms.
Key Social Norms Take-aways: Social norms around premarital sex, parental control, and peer prestige play a crucial role in sustaining adolescent-led marriage, even when individuals privately disapprove. The study underscores that interventions must go beyond empowering adolescents—they must also address the wider normative system that limits their options. Working only with youth may be ineffective […]
Abortion as agentive action: reproductive agency among young women seeking post-abortion care in Uganda
Key Social Norms Take-aways: In Uganda, restrictive gender norms, social stigma, and patriarchal power dynamics profoundly shape how young women experience unintended pregnancy and unsafe abortion. While abortion is socially condemned and legally ambiguous, young women enact agency through clandestine abortions as a means of reclaiming control over their futures. The decision to abort is […]
Adolescent Girls’ Agency Significantly Correlates With Favorable Social Norms in Ethiopia-Implications for Improving Sexual and Reproductive Health of Young Adolescents.
Key Social Norms Take-aways: This study finds that favorable social norms—especially descriptive and injunctive norms around early marriage—are significantly associated with greater agency among adolescent girls in Ethiopia. While norms supporting girls’ education and nutrition showed mixed associations, those related to early marriage had the strongest positive correlation with agency. However, agency domains related to […]
A Qualitative Study of Intimate Partner Violence Among Women in Nigeria
Key Social Norms Take-aways: This study reveals how deeply rooted patriarchal and cultural norms in Nigeria contribute to intimate partner violence (IPV). Women are expected to be submissive, defer to husbands and in-laws, and endure abuse for the sake of family honor and children. These norms discourage help-seeking and normalize suffering. Effective prevention must directly […]