Effects of a violence prevention intervention in schools and surrounding communities: Secondary analysis of a cluster randomized-controlled trial in Uganda
Key Social Norms Take-aways: The Good School Toolkit intervention effectively shifted social norms surrounding physical discipline both in schools and in surrounding communities. The study found strong reductions in caregivers’ acceptance of physical violence at school and at home, indicating that school-based interventions can catalyze wider normative change. However, changes in actual violence practices at […]
Effectiveness of Community Dialogue in Changing Gender and Sexual Norms for HIV Prevention: Evaluation of the Tchova Tchova Program in Mozambique
Key Social Norms Take-aways: Social norms—especially injunctive norms around gender and relationship dynamics—significantly influence attitudes and behaviors related to gender equity and HIV prevention. The study finds that exposure to a dialogue-based communication intervention can shift these norms by increasing interpersonal communication and changing what participants perceive others approve or expect. The results highlight the […]
The power of women’s and men’s Social Networks to catalyse normative and behavioural change: evaluation of an intervention addressing Unmet need for Family Planning in Benin
Key Social Norms Take-aways: Tékponon Jikuagou demonstrates that community-based social norms interventions can effectively shift attitudes and behaviors related to family planning (FP) by addressing communication taboos, social expectations, and gender roles. By fostering open dialogue around fertility and contraception within couples and peer networks, the intervention created more supportive environments for reproductive decision-making. While […]
Exploring young women’s reproductive decision-making, agency and social norms in South African informal settlements
Key Social Norms Take-aways: This study highlights that focusing solely on individual agency overlooks the powerful role of social norms — particularly the expectation that young women should prove their fertility early. Programs aiming to reduce early, unplanned pregnancies must challenge these community and family pressures, while also supporting women’s increasing desire for reproductive control […]
Impact of Sumadhur intervention on fertility and family planning decision-making norms: a mixed methods study
Key Social Norms Take-aways: The Sumadhur intervention demonstrated that shifting entrenched fertility and family planning norms—especially around the timing of first births and gendered household decision-making—is possible through intentional engagement of multiple household generations. Although societal norms continue to pressure women into early pregnancy, the intervention catalyzed more gender-equitable attitudes and communication within families, revealing […]
Gender Norms, Beliefs and Academic Achievement of Orphaned Adolescent Boys and Girls in Uganda
Key Social Norms Take-aways: This study underscores how entrenched gender norms favoring boys continue to disadvantage orphaned adolescent girls in Uganda’s education system. Despite holding more egalitarian beliefs themselves, girls face societal and familial biases that prioritize boys’ academic success. Encouragingly, adolescents exposed to more gender-equitable beliefs—especially girls—were associated with better academic performance, suggesting that […]
Family Factors and Gender Norms as Protective Factors Against Sexual Risk-Taking Behaviors Among Adolescent Girls in Southern Uganda
Key Social Norms Take-aways: Social norms, particularly traditional gender expectations that discourage premarital sex, may serve as a form of informal social control that deters sexual risk-taking. These norms, reinforced through close family bonds and socialized gender roles, play a critical role in adolescent girls’ behavioral choices. However, while traditional norms may have protective effects, […]
Effectiveness of a multi-level intervention to reduce men’s perpetration of intimate partner violence: a cluster randomized controlled trial
Key Social Norms Take-aways: This study underscores the complexity of transforming deeply entrenched social norms and masculinities that sustain intimate partner violence in informal peri-urban contexts. While the Sonke CHANGE intervention aimed to shift gender norms through community mobilization and reflective dialogue, it was more effective among men with less violent behavior at baseline. The […]
Stepping Stones and Creating Futures intervention: shortened interrupted time series evaluation of a behavioural and structural health promotion and violence prevention intervention for young people in informal settlements in Durban, South Africa
Key Social Norms Take-aways: This study highlights that integrating economic empowerment with gender-transformative interventions can effectively shift social norms among young people in informal settlements. Notably, it found that material improvements in young women’s lives—such as increased income and reduced financial dependence—enabled them to better apply knowledge from gender-transformative programming, leading to reduced experience of […]
Opportunities and Challenges in Preventing Violence Against Adolescent Girls Through Gender Transformative, Whole-Family Support Programming in Northeast Nigeria
Key Social Norms Take-aways: The SSAGE program demonstrates that synchronized, reflective engagement with caregivers, male siblings, and girls can shift household communication and decrease tolerance for violence. However, persistent patriarchal norms—particularly around girls’ obedience and mobility—limited the extent of norm change. This underscores the need for programs to simultaneously address broader structural and community-level drivers […]