Geographies of adolescent heterosexual dating and intimacy in a rural community in South Africa
Key Social Norms Take-aways: Social norms around gender and respectability strongly shape adolescent dating practices, positioning boys as initiators with greater power while expecting girls to uphold chastity and respect. However, girls actively negotiate relationships, demonstrating agency, particularly in early stages and around sexual health decisions. Importantly, norms shift across spaces: public spaces allow more […]
Exploring gender stereotypes and norms among peri-urban very young adolescents in Zimbabwe using participatory and qualitative approaches
Key Social Norms Take-aways: Gender norms among very young adolescents (VYAs) in peri-urban Zimbabwe are deeply embedded yet contested, shaping sexual behavior, resource allocation, and gendered expectations from an early age. Harmful norms—such as acceptance of boys’ sexual dominance, stigma around menstruation, and prioritization of boys’ education—are reinforced by families and communities, but adolescents themselves […]
Delayed pregnancy disclosure, attributed social factors and implications for antenatal care initiation: a qualitative study among Ugandan women and their partners
Key Social Norms Take-aways: Social norms around pregnancy disclosure—particularly expectations to conceal pregnancy early due to fear of judgement, stigma, and bewitchment—play a critical role in delaying access to antenatal care by limiting women’s ability to mobilize social support when it is most needed. Objectives: This study aimed to understand social norms surrounding pregnancy disclosure […]
Adolescents’ agency in negotiating social norms governing sexual and reproductive health services among the Nyasa people of Rural Tanzania
Key Social Norms Take-aways: Adolescents are not passive recipients of restrictive social and gender norms but actively navigate them through strategies of reproduction, resistance, and negotiation. Social norms—particularly stigma adolescent sexuality, gendered expectations, and fear of community judgement—strongly constrain access to sexual and reproductive health services (SRHS). However, adolescents exercise agency through covert service use, […]
‘Our options are limited, so we get married:’ girls, early marriage and health risks in rural Zimbabwe
Key Social Norms Take-aways: Social norms—particularly heteropatriarchal gender norms, religious doctrines, and stigma surrounding unmarried girls—play a central role in driving early marriage, often outweighing perceived health risks. Norms linking girls’ value to sexual purity, marriageability, and obedience to male authority figures create a “risk environment” where social exclusion is feared more than health consequences, […]
Multigenerational attitudes to gender norms on intimate partner violence and the sexual and reproductive health of young people in Nigeria
Key Social Norms Take-aways: Social norms around intimate partner violence (IPV) appear to be strongly entrenched and transmitted across generations, with little variation in attitudes, suggesting persistent normalization of harmful beliefs. In contrast, norms related to sexuality and reproductive health are more dynamic, with younger generations showing more egalitarian attitudes, likely due to increased access […]
The Weight of Expectations: Child Marriage Through the Lens of the Socio-Health Dissonance Model (SHDM) in Ghana
Key Social Norms Take-aways: Social norms—particularly those tied to parental prestige, community expectations, and authority of traditional leaders—strongly sustain child marriage in rural Ghana. These norms create pressure to conform to early marriage as a marker of respectability and social status, even when individuals are aware of its harms. The Socio-Health Dissonance Model (SHDM) highlights […]
Psychosocial determinants of contraceptive desire and use among sexually-active adolescent girls in Kenya and Nigeria: implications for girl-centered contraceptive programs
Key Social Norms Take-aways: Social norms—particularly descriptive norms around contraceptive acceptability—play a meaningful role in shaping adolescent girls’ desire for and use of contraception, but operate alongside individual psychosocial factors such as knowledge, perceived relevance, and self-efficacy. Norms that valorize early childbearing and fertility within marriage can suppress contraceptive demand, while normalization of contraceptive use […]
Tackling the Triple Threat in Kenya: Factors Associated with Protection against HIV Risk, Gender-Based Violence, and Pregnancy among Adolescent Girls and Young Women
Key Social Norms Take-aways: Gender norms—specifically gender-equitable attitudes—play a central protective role in reducing multiple risks faced by adolescent girls and young women (AGYW), including intimate partner violence and adolescent pregnancy. When combined with supportive relational norms (parental monitoring) and structural conditions (food security), these factors act synergistically as “development accelerators,” highlighting that shifting norms […]
Predicting Sexual Abstinence in School-Going Adolescents and Young Adults in Chad and Cameroon: Implications for Sexual Health Promotion Programs
Key Social Norms Take-aways: Social norms—measured as perceived norms supporting delayed sex—were not significant predictors of abstinence behaviors in this study, suggesting that norms alone may be insufficient to shape sexual behavior without complementary individual (e.g., self-efficacy) and relational (e.g., parental relationships) factors. The findings highlight that social norms operate within a broader socio-ecological system, […]