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6 Mechanisms of Attitude Change
Pages 53-62

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From page 53...
... (Sarah Baird, George Washington University) • Social norms research and norms-based interventions should consider what social norms-based intervention to improve modern contraceptive use looks like; how interventions to be run in communities with low collective norms should be differ entiated from those in communities with high collective norms; and how the power of interpersonal communication can be harnessed to amplify normative influences.
From page 54...
... Amin highlighted that the gender awareness intervention arm appeared to have the most consistently positive impact on these outcome measures compared to the other two inter­ entions, particularly on time spent in school, workforce participation, v and learning outcomes.
From page 55...
... Household wealth was associated with class membership at baseline but not at endline, whereas marital status, religious affiliation, and parents' education level were predictive of class membership throughout; more empowered girls tended to be unmarried and non-Muslim and to have parents with more education. The BALIKA study arm was also predictive of class membership; girls who participated in the gender awareness and education support arms were significantly more likely to belong to the emergent fourth, most empowered class.
From page 56...
... These drivers interact in important and complicated ways that necessitate multipronged, context-dependent approaches to identify solutions, which Baird pointed out may require long-term research given that drivers such as gender norms are slow to change. Baird shared the following definition of gender norms from a recent paper, noting that some interventions will try to improve family planning outcomes by operating within gender norms while others will attempt to change them: Gender norms are social norms defining acceptable and appropriate a ­ ctions for women and men in a given group or society.
From page 57...
... The first study is a collaboration with BRAC in Tanzania to examine three interventions targeting contraceptive uptake and SRH outcomes for unmarried adolescents: providing free contraceptives to females, empower­ females through a goal-setting exercise related to staying ing healthy and HIV/STI-free, and engaging with boyfriends, through soccer, to educate them about healthy intimate relationships.5 So far, the study authors have found that engaging males and goal-setting exercises has improved intimate-partner violence outcomes but has not affected uptake ­ of contraceptives or fertility outcomes. Baird remarked that even though this supply-side intervention provides contraceptives free of charge, it has had no impact on pregnancy-related outcomes, likely because of a very low contraceptive prevalence at baseline (<1%)
From page 58...
... Barrier and facilitator analyses have revealed similar barriers as found in other studies, including social and gender norms, harsh and judgmental atti­ tudes, myths about family planning, and missed opportunities to integrate postpartum family planning. Baird is also working on a fourth ongoing study in Ethiopia, which aims to conduct interventions among very young adolescents who tackle gender norms alongside their peers, families, communities, and broader institutional structures.
From page 59...
... Rimal explained that these elements are captured by the Theory of Normative Social Behavior, in which these three classes of moderating factors are unpacked in an effort to understand the conditions in which social norms are more or less influential than others.8 Social norms also interact to modulate their relative influence. Injunctive norms, for example, may amplify the effects of descriptive norms.
From page 60...
... Rimal considered this framework in relation to research on normative influence on contraceptive use. A recent study in Ethiopia demonstrated the reliable association of both descriptive and injunctive norms with condom use by young men.11 Another study in India examined interpersonal communication -- and in particular spousal communication -- as a potential amplifier of normative influence on the choices of women.12 In this latter study, spousal communication heightened the influence of descriptive norms among women with one child.
From page 61...
... Rimal ended the presentation with three questions that should be considered when conducting social norms research and designing norms-based interventions: First, what do social norms–based interventions to improve modern contraceptive use look like? Second, how can these interventions be differentiated between communities with low and those with high collective norms?
From page 62...
... 62 FAMILY PLANNING, WOMEN'S EMPOWERMENT, AND IMPACTS oppose wives in the workforce. Rimal cited a similar finding of pluralistic ignorance from the late 1960s, in which White American families reported that they were comfortable with their children playing with the children of a neighboring Black family, but that they did not believe their other neighbors would feel the same way.16 In these situations, correcting the misperception can to some extent change the behaviors.


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