“Household Debt and Relation to Intimate Partner Violence and Husbands’ Attitudes Toward Gender Norms: A Study Among Young Married Couples in Rural Maharashtra, India”
Key Social Norms Take-aways: Social norms around male dominance, control, and justification of violence play a crucial role in how economic stress like debt translates into IPV. Interventions targeting IPV need to include men and address both financial stress and the underlying gender beliefs that fuel violence. Economic programs focused only on women may miss […]
Effectiveness of curriculum-based sexual and reproductive health education on healthy sexual behaviors among year one students at Arba Minch University: A quasi-experimental study
Key Social Norms Take-aways: Improvements in some individual attitudes about sexual and reproductive health were seen as contributors to normative change over time by challenging stigma and misinformation, even if collective norm shifts are not yet visible. The findings suggest that there is still a need for longer-term efforts and potentially more targeted strategies to […]
Community Radio Program to Improve the Health of Women and Children
Key Social Norms Take-aways: The Kwishilya and Siñalamba radio serial dramas (RSDs) in Zambia show that entertainment-education can shift social norms around family planning, gender roles, and reproductive health. Regular listeners were more likely to perceive community and partner approval for contraceptive use and reported greater self-efficacy in negotiating reproductive decisions. The intervention helped normalize […]
Does Mass-Media Public Communication Campaign Normalize Discussion, Attitude and Behavior about Condom Use among Married Men in India?
Key Social Norms Take-aways: While the study does not directly measure social norms, it explores how a mass-media campaign designed to shift norms—particularly around masculinity and condom-related stigma—was associated with changes in individual attitudes, discussion, and self-efficacy. The campaign aimed to normalize condom use by reframing it as responsible and masculine, and reducing embarrassment around […]
Evaluation of the Confiance Totale Campaign in Togo: Associations Between Campaign Exposure and Family Planning Outcomes of Interest
Key Social Norms Take-aways: The Confiance Totale campaign influenced perceived descriptive and injunctive norms, couple communication, and self-efficacy, suggesting that ideational changes, particularly trust in providers and peer behaviors, play a crucial role in contraceptive uptake and reproductive autonomy. The campaign had stronger effects among women, who traditionally have lower access to health information and […]
Monitoring the quality assurance branding campaign Confiance Totale in Côte d’Ivoire
Key Social Norms Take-aways: The Confiance Totale campaign effectively influenced social norms related to family planning by leveraging mass media to challenge misperceptions about peer behaviors and build trust in healthcare providers. The campaign’s ideational approach shifted both descriptive and injunctive norms, particularly among women, and encouraged greater partner communication and decision-making autonomy. These changes […]
Changing Social Norms: the Importance of “Organized Diffusion” for Scaling Up Community Health Promotion and Women Empowerment Interventions.
Key Social Norms Take-aways: This article highlights the importance of “organized diffusion”—the process by which intervention participants intentionally share what they have learned with others in their networks—as a cost-effective strategy for promoting social norms change. Organized diffusion can amplify the reach and sustainability of community-based interventions by transforming both personal attitudes and collective norms, […]
Community mobilization to modify harmful gender norms and reduce HIV risk: results from a community cluster randomized trial in South Africa.
Key Social Norms Take-aways: This study demonstrates that community mobilization (CM) can shift harmful gender norms among men, creating more supportive social environments for HIV prevention. However, changing norms did not immediately translate into reductions in risk behaviors, highlighting the complexity of transforming norms into action. The findings suggest that norm change may precede behavioral […]
Assessing the impact of CHARM2, a family planning program on gender attitudes, intimate partner violence, reproductive coercion, and marital quality in India
Key Social Norms Take-aways: The CHARM2 intervention demonstrates that structured, gender-synchronized counseling with both men and women can improve attitudes toward gender equality and reduce social acceptance of intimate partner violence in patriarchal settings. However, despite shifts in normative attitudes, behavior change such as reductions in intimate partner violence or reproductive coercion may require more […]
Effects of digital chatbot on gender attitudes and exposure to intimate partner violence among young women in South Africa
Key Social Norms Take-aways: This study demonstrates that digital, behaviorally informed interventions can influence deeply rooted gender norms at scale. It is one of the first randomized trials to show that a chatbot can both improve gender attitudes and reduce intimate partner violence exposure among young women. The findings expand the evidence base on how […]