A new tool to measure norms that shape violence

The INSPIRE Evidence Lab is excited to share a new publication in focused on measuring community norms related to gender and violence among adolescents and young adults.

Why does this matter? Because social norms — the shared expectations communities hold about the roles of women and men, girls and boys — can shape risk for violence, health outcomes, and opportunities for young people. But measuring those norms has been difficult, especially in large national surveys.

In this study, researchers used data from the 2022 Eswatini VACS to test a new set of survey questions designed to capture how young people perceive norms in their communities. The final validated measure focused on expectations around household decision-making and domestic labor.

The findings show that it is possible to include brief, practical measures of social norms in large population-based surveys. Better measurement can help researchers, governments, and prevention programs better understand how harmful norms influence violence — and whether efforts to change those norms are working.

This work reflects the INSPIRE Evidence Lab’s commitment to strengthening data and evidence to prevent violence against children worldwide.

Read the full paper here: https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0345048

(Open access link)