Browsing by Author "De meyer, Sara"

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Boys should have the courage to ask a girl out: gender norms in early adolescent romantic relationships
(2017) De meyer, Sara; Kagesten, Anna; Mmari, Kristin; Mceachran, Juliet; Chilet Rosell, Elisa Null; Kabiru , Caroline W; Maina, Beatrice; Jerves Hermida, Elena Monserrath; Currie, Candace; Michielsen, Kristien
Purpose: The purpose of the study is to explore how gender norms emerge in romantic relationships among early adolescents (EAs) living in five poor urban areas. Methods: Data were collected as part of the Global Early Adolescent Study. The current research analyzed data from interviews with 30 EAs (aged 11e13 years) living in five poor urban sites: Baltimore, Cuenca, Edinburgh, Ghent, and Nairobi. All interviews were recorded, transcribed, and analyzed in English using Atlas.ti, focusing on how EAs experience and perceive gender norms in romantic relationships. Results: Across the five sites, only a few respondents described having been in love, the majority of whom were boys. Findings indicate that stereotypical gender norms about romantic relationships prevail across these cultural settings, depicting boys as romantically/sexually active and dominant, and girls as innocent with less (romantic) agency. In spite of the similarities, Nairobi was unique in that respondents referred to how sexual behavior and violence can occur within EA relationships. In all countries, heterosexuality was perceived to be the norm. Nevertheless, there were examples of EAs accepting homosexuality and expressing supportive attitudes toward equality between the sexes. Conclusions: While EAs across five different cultural settings seem to endorse stereotypical gender norms in romantic relationships, a few stories also illustrate more gender-equal attitudes. Asstereotypical gender norms have a demonstrated negative effect on adolescent sexual and reproductive health and well-being, additional research is needed to understand which factorsdat the interpersonal and structural leveldcontribute to the construction of these norms among EAs.
Lessons learnt from the CERCA Project, a multicomponent intervention to promote adolescent sexual and reproductive health in three Latin America countries: a qualitative post-hoc evaluation
(2016) Ivanova, Olena; Cordova Pozo, Kathya; Segura, Zoyla Esmeralda; Vega Crespo, Bernardo José; Chandra Mouli, Venkatraman; Hindin, Michelle; Temmerman, Marleen; Decat, Peter; De meyer, Sara; Michielsen, Kristien
The Community-Embedded Reproductive Health Care for Adolescents (CERCA) Project was implemented in Bolivia, Ecuador and Nicaragua (2011–2014) to test the effectiveness of interventions preventing teenage pregnancies. As the outcome evaluation showed limited impact, a post-hoc process evaluation was carried out to determine if and how CERCA’s design, implementation, monitoring and evaluation affected the results. We did a document analysis and conducted 18 in-depth interviews and 21 focus group discussions with stakeholders and beneficiaries. Transcripts were analyzed using directed content analysis. Data showed that CERCA sensitized stakeholders and encouraged the discussion on this sensitive issue. In terms of design, a strong point was the participatory approach; a weak point was that the detailed situation analysis was completed too late. In terms of implementation, a strong point was that multifaceted activities were implemented; a weak point was that the activities were not pilot tested for feasibility/acceptability and evolved substantially throughout the Project. In terms of monitoring, strong points were that regular monitoring kept the Project on track administratively/financially; a weak point was that monitoring indicators did not change as the intervention package changed. In terms of evaluation, weak points were the substantial attrition rate and narrow focus on adolescents. This study provides recommendations for future projects. ã 2016 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND