Measuring gender norms about relationships in early adolescence: Results from the global early adolescent study

C Moreau,M Li,S De Meyer,Loi Vu Manh,G Guiella,R Acharya,B Bello,B Maina,K Mmari

doi:10.1016/j.ssmph.2018.10.014

Abstract

IntroductionGender norms are increasingly recognized as drivers of health and wellbeing. While early adolescence constitutes a critical window of development, there is limited understanding about how adolescents perceive gender relations across different cultural settings. This study used a mixed-method approach, grounded in the voices of young people around the world, to construct and test a cross-cultural scale assessing the perceptions of gender norms regulating romantic relationships between boys and girls in early adolescence. MethodsThe study draws on the Global Early Adolescent study (GEAS), a study focusing on gender norms and health related outcomes over the course of adolescence in urban poor settings worldwide. In-depth interviews were first conducted among approximately 200 adolescents between 10–14 years in seven sites across 4 continents to identify common scripts guiding romantic relations in early adolescence. These scripts were then transformed into a multidimensional scale. The scale was tested among 120 adolescents in each of 14 GEAS sites, followed by a second pilot among 75 adolescents in six sites. We evaluated the psychometric criteria of each sub-scale using principal component analysis, and parallel analysis, followed by exploratory factor analysis to guide the selection of a more parsimonious set of items. ResultsResults suggested a two-factor structure, consisting of an “adolescent romantic expectations” subscale and a “Sexual Double Standard” subscale. Both subscales yielded high internal validity in each site, with polychoric Cronbach alpha values above 0.70 with the exception of Kinshasa for the adolescent romantic expectations scale (0.64) and Hanoi for the sexual double standard scale (0.61). ConclusionThis study reveals common perceptions of gendered norms about romantic engagement in early adolescence, normative for both sexes, but socially valued for boys while devaluated for girls. The findings illustrate that social hierarchies of power in romantic relationships form early in adolescence, regardless of cultural setting.

Highlights

Gender norms are increasingly recognized as drivers of health and wellbeing
We focus our attention on gender norms about romantic relationships in early adolescence as sexual development, including sexual attitudes, intimate relations and sexual practices is a primary interest of the Global Early Adolescent Study
While the Global Early Adolescent study (GEAS) study examines a range of gender domains, including perceptions of stereotypical traits (“male toughness” versus “female vulnerability), and perceptions of gender stereotypical roles, this paper focuses on the development of cross cultural scales assessing gender norms about romantic relationships between boys and girls in early adolescence

Summary

Introduction

Gender norms are increasingly recognized as drivers of health and wellbeing. While early adolescence constitutes a critical window of development, there is limited understanding about how adolescents perceive gender relations across different cultural settings. A number of studies have tied hegemonic forms of masculinities to unsafe sexual interactions, by encouraging male sexual risk taking (Barker, Ricardo, Nascimento, Olukoya, & Santos, 2010; Jewkes, Flood, & Lang, 2015), and by predisposing women to a wide range of sexual health risks (Jewkes and Morrell, 2010), including intimate partner violence (Jewkes, 2002), unprotected intercourse, STI/HIV acquisition (Krishnan et al, 2008) and unintended pregnancy (Pallitto & O’Campo, 2005) Together these risks represent the most important contributor to disability and death adolescent girls worldwide (15–19 years) (Patton, Sawyer, Ross, Viner, & Santelli, 2016)

Methods

Results

Discussion

Conclusion