The Drum Beat 809 - Social Norms Programming Research and Impact

• 1.Gender-norms, Violence and Adolescence: Exploring how Gender Norms Are Associated with Experiences of Childhood Violence among Young Adolescents in Ethiopia
  by Maureen Murphy, Nicola Jones, Workneh Yadete, and Sarah Baird
  Using data from the Gender and Adolescence: Global Evidence (GAGE) study, this paper explores how adolescent and household attitudes and community-level gender norms influence experiences of violence among young adolescents in Ethiopia. In short, the study finds that "community norms are more influential than individual attitudes for experiences of household violence for this age group. This highlights the importance of programming and communications outreach efforts that prioritise shifting wider gender and adolescent-age related norms, as part of a package of interventions to reduce violence against children." [Aug 2020]
  
   
• 2.Shifting Gender Norms to Improve HIV Service Uptake: Qualitative Findings from a Large-scale Community Mobilization Intervention in Rural South Africa
  by Anna M. Leddy, Ann Gottert, Nicole Haberland, et al.
  Conducted during the Tsima ("Working together") community mobilisation trial in South Africa, this study found that "community mobilization efforts can shift key inequitable gender norms linked to HIV service uptake, and positively effect engagement in HIV services" - e.g., through group activities that challenged norms related to men's toughness and avoidance of help-seeking. [Dec 2021]
  
   
• 3.Revising the Script - Taking Community Mobilization To Scale For Gender Equality
  by Brian Heilman and Shawna Stich
  This study explores the challenges of applying the "innovate, evaluate, scale up" recipe ("script") in the use of community mobilisation to address socially and politically sensitive issues, examining 5 organisations/initiatives in this field. Findings include the fact: that community mobilisation has been used as a tool to change widely held opinions and harmful behaviours related to sensitive issues in diverse settings; that many studies of community mobilisation interventions to shift cultural norms and reduce intimate partner violence show promising results; and that there is a sparsity of literature onscale-up of community mobilisation initiatives addressing socially and politically sensitive issues. [Sep 2016]
  
   
• See also:
  The Drum Beat 800 - Community-Level Action Related to Social Norms
  

• 4.A Message of the Majority with Scientific Evidence Encourages Young People to Show Their Prosocial Nature in COVID-19 Vaccination
  by Toshiko Tanaka, Tsuyoshi Nihonsugi, Fumio Ohtake, and Masahiko Haruno
  To find ways to promote COVID-19 vaccination in people who are less motivated (e.g., young people with lower risk perceptions), the researchers surveyed 6,232 Japanese people and investigated the effects of 9 different nudge messages. A key finding: Particularly for young males, the message emphasising the majority's intention to vaccinate and providing scientific evidence for the safety of the vaccination had the strongest positive effect on the willingness to be vaccinated by nudging people to show their prosocial nature through action. [Dec 2021]
  
   
• 5.Examining Masculinities to Inform Gender-Transformative Violence Prevention Programs: Qualitative Findings From Rakai, Uganda
  by Eunhee Park, Samuel Jason Wolfe, Fred Nalugoda, et al.
  Gender-transformative interventions seek to shift gender constructs and norms to reduce IPV, increase gender equity, and improve health outcomes. One such initiative is the Safe Homes and Respect for Everyone (SHARE) Project, which integrated an IPV prevention intervention with an existing HIV care, treatment, and prevention intervention in Rakai, Uganda. Based on the findings of this qualitative study of SHARE, the researchers recommend that gender-transformative interventions should challenge existing masculine norms and incorporate multilevel approaches that target personal, interpersonal, communal, and societal levels of change. [Jan 2022]
  
   
• 6.The Influence of Schooling on the Stability and Mutability of Gender Attitudes: Findings From a Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Girls in Zambia
  by Sophia Chae, Nicole Haberland, Katharine J. McCarthy, et al.
  This study investigates the role of education in shaping adolescent girls' gender attitudes using longitudinal data collected as part of the Population Council's multiarmed cluster randomised controlled trial (RCT) of the Adolescent Girls Empowerment Program (AGEP) in Zambia. The different patterns found (e.g., significantly higher mean gender attitude scores among urban girls than rural girls across all 4 survey rounds) highlight "the importance of contextual factors in shaping views on gender norms". The analysis includes implications of the findings for programming and research. For example, the researchers call for studies that explore the effects of different levels of the ecological system and how and why these factors may be associated with more equitable views in one context and more inequitable views in another. [Jan 2020]
  
   
• 7.Social Norms and Vaccine Uptake: College Students' COVID Vaccination Intentions, Attitudes, and Estimated Peer Norms and Comparisons with Influenza Vaccine
  by Scott Graupensperger, Devon A. Abdallah, and Christine M. Lee
  In this November 2020 online survey of United States (US) undergraduate students, multiple regression models show that estimated social norms were positively associated with participants' intentions and perceived importance of getting a COVID-19 vaccine. For example, every 1% increase in estimated descriptive norms was associated with 1.05 times greater odds of intending to get a COVID-19 vaccine, though students tend to underestimate their peers' intentions and attitudes towards getting a COVID-19 vaccine. Thus, university stakeholders could develop personalised normative feedback interventions to correct normative misperceptions. Social norms also can be leveraged within social marketing campaigns. [Mar 2021]
  
   
• 8.Beliefs and Norms Associated with the Use of Ultra-Processed Commercial Milk Formulas for Pregnant Women in Vietnam
  by Tuan T. Nguyen, Jennifer Cashin, Constance Ching, et al.
  This analysis examines the association between the use of commercial milk formula for pregnant women (CMF-PW) and related beliefs and social norms among pregnant women in Vietnam, where CMF-PW is promoted as beneficial. In short, the study "found that the prevalent use of CMF-PW in Vietnam is associated with the belief that these products make children smart and healthy and the perceived social norm that most pregnant women use these products." Among the calls to action: The potential harmful effects of using CMF-PW must be communicated to pregnant women, mothers, and the health workers who counsel them. [Nov 2021]
  
   

• 9.Measuring Family Planning Norms in Zambia: A Mixed Methods Vignette Study
  by Amy Henderson Riley, Patrick Moeller, Shivani Ramolia, et al.
  Studies have called for more qualitative research using methodologies to capture the nuance of social norms and their relationships to behaviour. For example, vignettes (narratives that depict a hypothetical scenario) may be useful when direct questioning about sensitive topics is not culturally appropriate and/or limits the candor of participants' responses. Designed as a field validation, the surveys and focus group discussions carried out in Zambia for this study suggest that "vignettes may indeed be a valid approach for measuring family planning norms in this setting, although further research is needed." [Oct 2021]
  
   
• 10.Enhancing Social Norms Programs: An Invitation to Rethink "Scaling Up" From a Feminist Perspective
  The Community for Understanding Scale Up (CUSP), a group of organisations whose methodologies are designed to align with feminist principles, have found that these principles are frequently lost when others take them to scale - namely, as the focus shifts to numbers, geographies, and efficiencies. This thought piece summarises CUSP's 2020-2021 deliberations on "feminist scale", which involves interrogating the concept or metaphor of "scaling up" itself. In the conversations that informed this report, the group explored how other frameworks, such as those based on ecosystems, might better inform expansion efforts (or scaling up) of organisations working to shift gender-based social norms by harnessing dynamic energy from within to create change. [Jan 2022]
  
   
• 11.Combining Theory and Research to Validate a Social Norms Framework Addressing Female Genital Mutilation
  by Suruchi Sood and Astha Ramaiya
  Research has established that the harmful practice of female genital mutilation (FGM) is upheld due to myriad social norms. Though this evidence has informed decades of experience and guidance on the process and scale-up of norm-shifting interventions promoting FGM abandonment, a lack of rigor and standardisation in monitoring and evaluation (M&E) of these efforts has made it difficult to attribute social and behaviour change (SBC) to them. Thus, the United Nations Joint Program to Eliminate FGM funded the development and validation of an M&E framework to understand the relationship between social norms and practicing FGM. Evidence on the framework was gathered through a pilot study in Ethiopia. This paper uses cross-sectional quantitative data from the pilot to operationalise the framework and determine what factors are associated with practicing FGM. [Jan 2022]
  
   
• 12.Rapid Assessment of the "Stories Without an Ending" Technique
  by Francesca Lulli
  The non-governmental organisation Grandmother Project (GMP) - Change through Culture has been working to support the development and rights of young girls in Vélingara, Senegal, since 2008. One tool GMP uses in its activities to catalyse dialogue for consensus-building toward change is Stories-Without-an-Ending (SWE), which is consistent with the characteristics of African collectivist societies. This report presents a study to understand community experience with and attitudes toward the SWE approach and its effects at the community level. The results show that all interviewees see SWE favourably as encouraging reflection and change within communities on topics that concern them, with one grandmother in Bagayoko adding, "And everyone is encouraged to continue the reflection when they are back home, for a wider reach." [Dec 2018 (English translation Feb 2020)]
  
   
• 13.Social Norms Diagnostic Tool: Young Women's Economic Justice
  by Imogen Davies, Anam Parvez Butt, Thalia Kidder, and Ben Cislaghi
  From Oxfam, this tool offers a set of participatory exercises designed to guide programme staff to work together with young people and other community members to identify and discuss social norms that shape, constrain, or promote young women's economic justice within their contexts. The exercises are informed by the Dynamic Framework for Social Change and support participants to think about how overlapping individual, social, material, and institutional factors can influence people's actions. [Dec 2021]
  
   
• 14.Applying Theory to Practice: CARE's Journey Piloting Social Norms Measures for Gender Programming
  by Leigh Stefanik and Theresa Hwang
  This report shares experience and learning on translating social norms theory into practical measurement tools for development programming, featuring: the use of CARE's Social Norms Analysis Plot (SNAP), a framework developed to measure if and how norms are changing; qualitative vignettes; and survey questions. By adapting social norms theory into practical design and measurement tools, CARE hopes to better equip practitioners working to address social norms within international development programmes. [2017]
  
   

• 15.Iron and Folic Acid Consumption and Changing Social Norms: Cluster Randomized Field Trial, Odisha, India
  by Rajiv N. Rimal, Hagere Yilma, Erica Sedlander, et al.
  The Reduction in Anaemia through Normative Innovations (RANI) project is a multi-year effort to lower rates of anaemia among women in Odisha, India, using a social norms approach. For example, to bring about change in descriptive norms, the intervention materials communicated that more and more women were beginning to consume iron and folic acid to reduce anaemia. The results indicate that, after 6 months, mean scores in self-reported iron and folic acid consumption in the control arm had decreased from 0.39 to 0.31, whereas mean scores in the intervention arm increased from 0.39 to 1.62 (315% increase; P<0.001). The difference between the two arms was statistically significant (P<0.001). Each of the three norms (descriptive, injunctive, and collective) also improved at significantly higher rates in the intervention than in the control arm (P<0.001 for each norm). Changes in descriptive and collective norms (but not injunctive norms) were associated with changes in self-reported iron and folic acid consumption (P<0.001 for both norms). [Aug 2021]
  
   
• 16.Gender-transformative Bandebereho Couples' Intervention to Promote Male Engagement in Reproductive and Maternal Health and Violence Prevention in Rwanda: Findings from a Randomized Controlled Trial
  by Kate Doyle, Ruti G. Levtov, Gary Barker, et al.
  Conducted in Rwanda, this RCT assessed the impact of Bandebereho (meaning "role model" in Kinyarwanda), a gender-transformative couples' intervention. The intervention led to substantial improvements in multiple reported outcomes influenced by gender norms and power relations. For example, compared to the control group, women in the intervention group reported less past-year physical (odds ratio (OR) 0.37, p<0.001) and sexual IPV (OR 0.34, p<0.001) and greater attendance (incidence rate ratio (IRR) 1.09, p<0.001) and male accompaniment at antenatal care (ANC) (IRR 1.50, p<0.001). Furthermore, the intervention reduced men's dominance in household decision-making, which is associated with negative health-related outcomes for women and children. [Apr 2018]
  
   
• 17.Transforming Social Norms to Improve Girl-Child Health and Well-Being: A Realist Evaluation of the Girls' Holistic Development Program in Rural Senegal
  GMP's (see #11, above) Girls' Holistic Development (GHD) programme in Vélingara, Senegal, uses participatory, dialogical approaches to build relationships and community consensus on girl-child issues in a setting where family and community systems are characterised by age, generational, and gender hierarchies. A Realist Evaluation of the GHD programme found, to cite only one example from the paper, that caregivers in intervention villages were statistically less likely to report they intend to marry their very young adolescent daughter before the age of 16 (13.3%) than caregivers in comparison villages (27.9%). [Dec 2021]
  
   
• 18.Effectiveness of the School-based Social and Behaviour Change Communication Interventions on Insecticide-Treated Nets Utilization among Primary School Children in Rural Ethiopia: A Controlled Quasi-Experimental Design
  by Fira Abamecha, Morankar Sudhakar, Lakew Abebe, et al.
  Based on the idea that students and teachers can be empowered to act as health messengers in local communities, this study examined the effectiveness of a school-based SBCC approach on insecticide-treated net (ITN) utilisation among primary school students in malaria-endemic settings of Ethiopia. In the intervention, emphasis was given to promoting social and group norms rather than just the health benefits of ITN use; messages focused on the risks of being left behind for those who are late and laggards to adopt the behaviours. Engaging parents aimed to enhance family supports for improved adoption and sustained malaria prevention in the community and schools. Post-intervention data from 798 primary school students indicate that ITN use was 39% higher in the intervention group, which was attributed to the intervention. [Jan 2021]
  
   
• 19.A Social Norms Approach Intervention to Address Misperceptions of Anti-Vaccine Conspiracy Beliefs amongst UK Parents
  by Darel Cookson, Daniel Jolley, Robert C. Dempsey, and Rachel Povey
  This study tested the effectiveness of a brief online Social Norms Approach (SNA) intervention that corrects misperceptions using normative feedback to reduce United Kingdom (UK) parents' anti-vaccine conspiracy beliefs and increase their intentions to vaccinate their children. The study found that parents receiving the normative feedback showed significantly reduced personal belief in anti-vaccine conspiracy beliefs at immediate post-test. Mediation analysis showed that the normative feedback increased perceptions of other parents' vaccination intentions, which in turn increased personal vaccination intentions. [Nov 2021]
  
   
• See also:
  * Gaining Traction: Promising Shifts in Gender Norms and Intimate Partner Violence in the Context of a Community-based HIV Prevention Trial in South Africa
  

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