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Power, Voice, and Agency: Empowering Adolescent Girls and Young Women through Multiple Interventions for Evidence-Informed Contraceptive Decisions
Get PDFThis blog is part of a series in partnership with Population Council, Reproductive Health Supplies Coalition (RHSC), and Population Services International (PSI), to recognize World Contraception Day 2024. It was originally published on the Council\u27s website
Webinar—Voces perdidas: Niñas en la economía del cuidado
No full textAs part of the International Day of the Girl Child 2024’s theme “Girls’ Vision for the Future,” it was essential to consider how adolescent girls envision their role in the future care economy. The care economy, which includes both paid and unpaid care work, disproportionately burdens women and girls, yet current policies largely overlook the distinct experiences of adolescent girls.
On October 30, 2024, the Population Council’s GIRL Center hosted a conversation among people with lived experience, researchers, practitioners, and policymakers on the implications for girls’ engagement in the care economy and how best to integrate their distinct needs in programs and policies to support their visions for the future.
Speakers included: Dr. Annabel Erulkar, Population Council (Facilitator) Maïmouna Bah, Population Council (Presenter) Edith Murogo, Centre for Domestic Training and Development Winnie Nelima, Centre for Domestic Training and Development Amar Nijhawan, International Development Research Center Chiku Semfuko, International Labour Organization
The webinar was conducted in English with simultaneous interpretation in French and Spanish
Contraceptive change and fertility transition
No full textOver the past half-century, most countries have made progress through their demographic transitions with continuing declines in mortality and fertility. The major driver of fertility decline has been the adoption of contraception by women of reproductive age who increasingly desire smaller families. This paper documents the massive changes in contraceptive behavior that have occurred since 1970 at the global and regional levels and examines contraceptive use differentials by marital status and method. To understand the proximate causes of the rise in contraceptive use, we document the changes in the potential demand for contraception (among women who want to space or limit their childbearing) and the degree to which this potential demand is satisfied by the actual practice of contraception. The paper concludes with a confirmation of the strong inverse relationship between contraceptive use and fertility. The main sources of data for these analyses are comprehensive datasets with country, regional, and global estimates of historical trends in fertility and contraceptive behavior maintained by the Population Division of the United Nations
Experiences of pregnant and parenting adolescents and young women during COVID-19 pandemic: A mixed-methods study among girls and women in Kenya
No full textPurpose: This study examines the experiences of pregnant/parenting adolescents and young women during the first two years of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. Methods: This explanatory sequential mixed-methods study leverages quantitative data collected among a cohort of adolescents and young people aged 15–22 years in three Kenyan counties; Nairobi, Kisumu, and Kilifi at three time points (2020, 2021, 2022), and two rounds of qualitative interviews in the same settings conducted in 2020 and 2022. Results: Among 2337 (2020), 1438 (2021), and 1669 (2022) respondents, pregnant/parenting adolescents and youth comprised 140 (6%), 101 (7%), and 83 (5%) individuals, respectively. Across the three time points, the experience of depressive symptoms was similar between pregnant/parenting adolescents and those not pregnant/parenting. Pregnancy and parenting was associated with twice the odds of skipping health services (adjusted odds ratio [aOR] 2.18, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.43–3.35), in 2020, and 85% higher odds (aOR 1.85, 95% CI 1.14–3.02) in 2021, and 90% higher odds of skipping meals (aOR 1.90, 95% CI 1.19–3.03) in 2022. Qualitative findings indicated experiences of psychological distress, food insecurity, and inadequate access to health care services among pregnant/parenting young people during the pandemic. Discussion: The pandemic increased pre-existing challenges associated with adolescent and young people\u27s health, predisposing young pregnant/parenting women to greater adversity than their nonpregnant/parenting counterparts. Targeted and responsive approaches during emergencies and crises such as social protection, food security, and mental health programs for this group of vulnerable people are required and need to be integrated into disaster response plans
Substance use during pregnancy and postpartum among individuals with perinatally-acquired HIV in the United States
No full textUse of cannabis and alcohol were common during pregnancy and the first year postpartum among people with HIV in the United States (2007–2019), but there were no major differences in substance use during pregnancy based on mode of HIV acquisition. The relatively high prevalence of substance use in this population, particularly postpartum alcohol and cannabis use, warrants further attention
Abriendo Oportunidades—Community-based group mentoring to promote indigenous adolescent girls’ well-being: Impact findings from a cluster-RCT in Guatemala
No full textPurpose: We evaluated Abriendo Oportunidades (AO), an intervention for indigenous adolescent girls that builds knowledge, life skills, and social support, contributing to multiple education, safety, health, and social outcomes. Methods: We conducted a cluster-randomized control trial (CRCT) in 40 communities (20 control and 20 intervention). The primary domains were school enrollment, marriage, and experience of physical violence; secondary were financial literacy, sexual and reproductive health (SRH) knowledge, social capital, and gender norms. In AO, young women mentors facilitated groups of indigenous girls aged 12-17 using a culturally affirming life skills curriculum. Results: 1209 girls were interviewed at baseline and 1148 at endline. Among 613 eligible girls in the intervention communities, 49% enrolled in a group. After 12 months, we found small positive standardized program effects on two domains: marriage and violence. Measured at a 90% confidence level, AO girls were less likely than control to report ever being married (-0.034 standard deviations (SDs), p\u3c0.10), or experiencing physical violence in past 12 months (-0.056 SDs, p\u3c0.10). Effects on school enrollment, financial literacy, SRH knowledge, social capital and gender norms were positive, but not statistically significant (β, ≤ 0.10 [SDs]). Findings were consistent for Intent-to-Treat (ITT) and Treatment of the Treated (TOT) analyses. Conclusions: The findings on child marriage and physical violence suggest AO’s positively contributes to girls’ and their households. This is consistent with existing evidence supporting girls’ groups and interventions for indigenous youth. Further engagement with indigenous girls, their households, and communities is needed to identify appropriate packages of interventions
Identifying profiles of support for legal abortion services in Zambia: A latent class analysis
No full textRelative to neighboring countries, Zambia has among the most progressive abortion policies, but numerous sociopolitical constraints inhibit knowledge of pregnancy termination rights and access to safe abortion services. Multistage cluster sampling was used to randomly select 1,486 women aged 15–44 years from households in three provinces. We used latent class analysis (LCA) to partition women into discrete groups based on patterns of endorsed support for legalized abortion on six socioeconomic and health conditions. Predictors of probabilistic membership in latent profiles of support for legal abortion services were identified through mixture modeling. A three-class solution of support patterns for legal abortion services emerged from LCA: (1) legal abortion opponents (∼58 percent) opposed legal abortion across scenarios; (2) legal abortion advocates (∼23 percent) universally endorsed legal protections for abortion care; and (3) conditional supporters of legal abortion (∼19 percent) only supported legal abortion in circumstances where the pregnancy threatened the fetus or mother. Advocates and Conditional supporters reported higher exposure to family planning messages compared to opponents. Relative to opponents, advocates were more educated, and Conditional supporters were wealthier. Findings reveal that attitudes towards abortion in Zambia are not monolithic, but women with access to financial/social assets exhibited more receptive attitudes towards legal abortion
Selam Medirashachin (Safe Arrival) Project: Addressing the risk of trafficking, violence, and sexual abuse among newly arriving migrant girls in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia
Get PDFRates of urbanization in Ethiopia are significant and, increasingly, young females are among those who migrate from rural to urban areas. Previous research in Addis Ababa showed that, compared to boys and young men, young female migrants are more likely to migrate to cities without the accompaniment of immediate family members. and often move in with people with whom they have only loose affiliation or live on their own. Previous Population Council research on the experience of adolescent girls and young women (AGYW) revealed that girls’ migration from rural to urban areas of the country may be perilous. This is particularly true at the point of arrival into cities, and when traveling on their own or with same-age peers, and with no immediate plans for where to stay upon arrival. Formative research was conducted during the initial phases of the current project, which included in-depth interviews with migrant AGYW, market women, and petty traders who operate in and around bus stations, as well as job placement brokers. This research confirmed earlier Council findings that highlighted intensified risk to girls immediately upon arrival and recommended that support programs take steps to facilitate social connections, accommodations, and linkage to services
The implementation and impact of a 3-week postpartum telephone visit
No full textThis study aimed to evaluate the implementation of a postpartum telephone visit 3 weeks after delivery and the impact of this visit on attendance at the comprehensive postpartum visit, breastfeeding rates, contraceptive use, depression screening, social work visits, emergency room visits, and hospital admissions