TY - JOUR
T1 - Changes in Family-Level Attitudes and Norms and Association with Secondary School Completion and Child Marriage Among Adolescent Girls
T2 - Results from an Exploratory Study Nested Within a Cluster-Randomised Controlled Trial in India
AU - Prakash, Ravi
AU - Beattie, Tara S.
AU - Cislaghi, Beniamino
AU - Bhattacharjee, Parinita
AU - Javalkar, Prakash
AU - Ramanaik, Satyanarayana
AU - Thalinja, Raghavendra
AU - Davey, Calum
AU - Gafos, Mitzy
AU - Watts, Charlotte
AU - Collumbien, Martine
AU - Moses, Stephen
AU - Isac, Shajy
AU - Heise, Lori
N1 - Funding Information:
The study team would like to thank the study participants, including adolescent girls, families, school staff and village communities, as well as the programme implementation team for their tireless work throughout the study. We thank the local and state government for their support of the programme. We would also like to acknowledge Mr. Raj Kumar at KHPT for superb data management and support, and the LSHTM Centre for Evaluation for statistical support and advice, in particular Profs Richard Hayes, Helen Weiss and James Hargreaves and Dr. James Lewis. The trial protocol can be accessed at: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25881037
Funding Information:
Project Samata was funded by the UK Department for International Development (DFID) as part of STRIVE, an 8-year programme of research and action devoted to tackling the structural drivers of HIV ( http://STRIVE.lshtm.ac.uk/ ) and Viivhealth Care. None of the funding sources played a role in the design of the study, data collection, analysis, interpretation or writing of the results. Acknowledgements Protocol
Publisher Copyright:
© 2020, Society for Prevention Research.
PY - 2020/11/1
Y1 - 2020/11/1
N2 - We evaluated the impact of Samata, a 3-year multilayered intervention among scheduled caste/scheduled tribe (SC/ST) adolescent girls in rural northern Karnataka, on family-level (parents or guardian) attitudes and direct and indirect norms related to child marriage and girl’s education. Endline data from 1840 family members were used to assess the effect of Samata on attitudes and norms related to schooling and child marriage, while data from 4097 family members (including 2257 family members at baseline) were used to understand the shifts in attitudes and norms over the period 2014–2017. Overall, we found that the programme had little impact on family-level attitudes and norms. However, there were shifts in some attitudes, norms and perceived sanctions between baseline (when girls were aged 13–14 years) and endline (when girls were aged 15–16 years), with some becoming more progressive (e.g. direct norms related to child marriage) and others more restrictive (e.g. norms around girls completing secondary education and norms related to child marriage and educational drop-out, blaming girls for eve teasing and limiting girls’ mobility so as to protect family honour). Moreover, non-progressive norms related to marriage and education were strongly associated with child marriage and secondary school non-completion among adolescent girls in this rural setting. Norms hypothesised to be important for marriage and schooling outcomes were indeed associated with these outcomes, but the intervention was not able to significantly shift these norms. In part, this may have been due to the intervention focusing much of its initial efforts on working with girls alone rather than family members, the relevant reference group. Future interventions that seek to affect norms should conduct formative research to clarify the specific norms affecting the outcome(s) of interest; likewise, programme planners should ensure that all activities engage those most influential in enforcing the norm(s) from the beginning. ClinicalTrials.gov registration number: NCT01996241
AB - We evaluated the impact of Samata, a 3-year multilayered intervention among scheduled caste/scheduled tribe (SC/ST) adolescent girls in rural northern Karnataka, on family-level (parents or guardian) attitudes and direct and indirect norms related to child marriage and girl’s education. Endline data from 1840 family members were used to assess the effect of Samata on attitudes and norms related to schooling and child marriage, while data from 4097 family members (including 2257 family members at baseline) were used to understand the shifts in attitudes and norms over the period 2014–2017. Overall, we found that the programme had little impact on family-level attitudes and norms. However, there were shifts in some attitudes, norms and perceived sanctions between baseline (when girls were aged 13–14 years) and endline (when girls were aged 15–16 years), with some becoming more progressive (e.g. direct norms related to child marriage) and others more restrictive (e.g. norms around girls completing secondary education and norms related to child marriage and educational drop-out, blaming girls for eve teasing and limiting girls’ mobility so as to protect family honour). Moreover, non-progressive norms related to marriage and education were strongly associated with child marriage and secondary school non-completion among adolescent girls in this rural setting. Norms hypothesised to be important for marriage and schooling outcomes were indeed associated with these outcomes, but the intervention was not able to significantly shift these norms. In part, this may have been due to the intervention focusing much of its initial efforts on working with girls alone rather than family members, the relevant reference group. Future interventions that seek to affect norms should conduct formative research to clarify the specific norms affecting the outcome(s) of interest; likewise, programme planners should ensure that all activities engage those most influential in enforcing the norm(s) from the beginning. ClinicalTrials.gov registration number: NCT01996241
KW - Adolescent girls
KW - Family attitudes and norms
KW - India
KW - Karnataka
KW - Marginalised community (SC/ST)
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85088638798&partnerID=8YFLogxK
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/citedby.url?scp=85088638798&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1007/s11121-020-01143-1
DO - 10.1007/s11121-020-01143-1
M3 - Article
C2 - 32720188
AN - SCOPUS:85088638798
VL - 21
SP - 1065
EP - 1080
JO - Prevention Science
JF - Prevention Science
SN - 1389-4986
IS - 8
ER -