Murphy, M. et al. (2021) āGender-norms, violence and adolescence: Exploring how gender norms are associated with experiences of childhood violence among young adolescents in Ethiopiaā, Global Public Health, 16(6), pp. 842ā855.
The author introduced the study by explaining how children between the age of 2-17 are exposed to various forms of violence including physical, sexual and psychological attack by their caregivers mostly at their own homes. High rates of violence are correlated with inequitable gender norms whereby corporal punishment is accepted by parents and violence from intimate partners is considered as normal.
By focusing on the roles of power, gender and social norms within a context of multiple relationships between different domains, the study usedĀ GAGE baseline data collected in Ethiopia in 2017 and 2018. The data includes, quantitative dataset collected from 5448 young adolescent girls and boys aged 10ā12 from three diverse regions of Ethiopia (rural Afar, rural and urban areas of Amhara, and rural and urban areas of Oromia). TheĀ qualitative data included 192 adolescents and 158 caregivers who were predo-minantly selected from the quantitative sample. Ordinary least squares regression (linear probability model [LPM]) was used to explore the associ-ations between IGA and IGG and violence outcomes among young adolescents.
According to the finding, children usually face violence in the form of punishment whenever they commit any acts in violation of parents expectation or direction. Children in rural areas reported more violence than those in urban areas. This is because, by contrast, norms in urban communities emerged as less supportive of physical punishment, leading parents to adjust their parenting styles. Boys and girls in rural areas were, however, punished physically for losing control of livestocks. Such punishment will be severe and cause considerable psychosocial and physical harm. Though boys and girls were the victims of violence there were gendered differences in their reason for punishment. Accordingly, girls usually get punished for violating gender norms that they didnāt live up to local norms around femininity and mastery of domestic chores or for being seen with men. Girls response to the negative impacts on adolescent girlsāmental wellbeing, with young girls increasingly exercising agency and resorting to distress migration or even suicide in response to harsh parental treatment.
Thus the author argued that there is a need to shift the views of individuals and households towards more equitable norms for violence prevention programming, especially for girls and adolescents in rural areas,who tend to be punished for non-compliance with gender norms.