Perspectives on post-violence support-seeking and service provision among adolescent girls and young women: Insights from community conversations in Lusaka, Zambia.
Outcomes: Gender‑Based Violence
View SourceKey Social Norms Take-aways Social and gender norms strongly shape whether adolescent girls and young women seek support after violence and how families, communities, and institutions respond. Norms emphasizing silence, secrecy, endurance of violence, preservation of marriage, and communal harmony can discourage disclosure and formal help-seeking, particularly for violence within marriage. However, participants also described emerging shifts away from secrecy and victim-blaming. The authors argue that changing harmful norms requires coordinated action across generations and sectors, including engaging traditional and religious leaders, improving communication between young women and service providers, and ensuring that health, legal, and social-service systems reinforce rather than undermine healthier norms.
Objectives To explore the factors shaping post-violence support- and service-seeking among adolescent girls and young women, as well as the provision of services following experiences of gender-based violence in peri-urban Lusaka, Zambia.
Methods This exploratory qualitative study conducted community conversations in October 2022 with 30 purposively recruited participants: 12 adolescent girls and young women aged 15–24, including survivors of violence, young women living with human immunodeficiency virus, and married young women; 10 healthcare professionals; and eight community members, including teachers, religious and political leaders, and a market representative. Community conversations combined group discussions with participatory and arts-based activities, including journey maps, personas, and free-listing. Data were thematically analyzed, with arts-based materials used to triangulate findings. Rather than quantitatively measuring social norms, the study qualitatively examined normative expectations surrounding marriage, womanhood, violence, disclosure, support-seeking, and institutional responses.
Results Normative expectations that women should endure violence, maintain marriages, remain silent, or prioritize family and community harmony discouraged disclosure and support-seeking. Family stigma and judgment could further pressure women to remain in abusive relationships, while support-seeking for violence outside marriage was generally more socially accepted than for violence within marriage. Institutional practices also reproduced harmful gender dynamics: survivors described being dismissed, navigating fragmented services, facing resource constraints, and losing trust in systems intended to protect them. At the same time, participants identified signs of normative change, including women using police involvement to resist abuse and religious and traditional leaders increasingly encouraging disclosure rather than secrecy.
Conclusions Improving post-violence support requires addressing harmful norms alongside structural and service-delivery barriers. Better-resourced, coordinated, and survivor-responsive systems can reinforce healthier expectations about responses to violence, while community dialogue and engagement with influential traditional and religious leaders may help shift norms toward greater safety, disclosure, and support for adolescent girls and young women.
Disclaimer: These summaries were generated with the assistance of artificial intelligence and are based on the interpretation of source documents. While efforts have been made to ensure accuracy and clarity, there may be errors or omissions. Users are encouraged to consult the original documents for complete and authoritative information.