Reviewer’ s report
Title: Examining Determinants of Gender Attitudes: Evidence among Tanzanian adolescents
Version: 0Date: 07 Dec 2019
Reviewer: Rajib Acharya
Reviewer's report:
Structural Equation Analysis of Determinants of gender attitudes: Evidence among
Tanzanian adolescents using an ecological model
Comment 1:
Some sentences are very big and are not easy to understand. For example- "Decisions andtransitions, including relationship formation, sexual debut, and pregnancy and marriage, madeduring adolescence have lasting impacts on both the individuals who make them and the nextgeneration." Authors can try to re-write them into more simple terms to understand.Comment 2:Authors can add a sentence on rationale behind restricting the study to adolescents from lower-income settings whether it's data limitation or there is any specific reason behind this selection.They can add on how adolescents from lower-income settings are more vulnerable and what arethe added risks for them due to their social status.Comment 3:In the method section a lot of detail is given about the study design, village selection process andrandomization of study areas into treatment/control units since the authors have used it for crosssectional analysis there is no need to go into details in it. Giving so much details about the
randomized control trial is confusing for readers who may assume that the present study is a case-
control study. The details can be shared in the appendix or a link can be provided for those who areinterested in knowing the data selection process.Moreover, if the data on gender attitudes is collected from the non-PNNS household too why notcompare these two and show whether there is any difference in the control and treatment groups.Comment 4:Authors have mentioned that multilevel model is used for the analysis "This study examines multi-level determinants of gender attitudes" however in the method section model specifications are notclearly mentioned as what were the levels, what estimation methods were used and whether modelused was linear regression, gamma regression, logit, probit, or any other. It is advised to re-writethe method section and focus more on explaining the model used in detail with all thespecifications used. Name of the software used for analysis is also not mentioned in themanuscript.Moreover, authors can provide path diagram for input models in the method section to provide abetter understanding of the hypothesized associations. A structural equation modelling necessarilycomes with a diagrammatic representation of he model and that is of interest to the readerFinally, the model fitting parameters are necessary too.
Comment 5:
Is there any reason to assume that "whether woman can inherit husband's land" may vary by
village? Also, it has been mentioned in the abstract that community level variables will becontrolled. Please clarify what community level factors were chosen in the study.The model looks like a case of a single level equation with higher level variables used as regressor,but not used multi-level character of the data.
Comment 6:
Overall the introduction section needs to be written comprehensibly. At present the rationalesdiscussed are not coming out clearly. There is lot of emphasis on the community levels influencers
in the introduction section, but the variables selected in the model does not reflect community
level variation. Since it is multilevel analysis what is the contribution of different levels in shapinggender attitudes is also missing from the results. Authors have not discussed the differences theyfound in the two districts and what can be influencing these differences.Comment 7:Discussion section should also be restructured in a manner that main findings are discussed one byone before going into consequences of gender equitable socialization and recommendations.Comments on four domains of GEM is missing from the discussion as which domain iscontributing most in the GEM. Since it is already tested it would be nice to highlight the findingsin detail.It is mentioned that females have low GEM, in addition to this authors may throw some light onreasons behind females having lower GEM scores than males.On page 14 in the para "A gendered perspective of socializing female adolescents with morechores may translate into female adolescents being less equipped to take care of themselvesfinancially" - Is this sentence coming from author's own findings or has been taken from literature.Since there is no citation it is confusing.Comment 8:On page 15 the para "Most of the adolescent girls in our sample……… beliefs that privilege boys
and subordinate girls (12)" mentions how boys are more likely to attend school and becoming
financially independent adults in future. This paragraph is interesting but not related to findingsfrom the current study. Instead of this, authors should focus on discussing why education isassociated with more equitable gender attitudes among adolescents.
The second para "Gender equitable attitudes may change with age and experiences……." indicates
about contrast findings between Uganda study and present one. Again, a little explanation for thisdifference would help readers to better understand how different social context influences GEMdifferently.
The association between sexual debut and GEM needs to be explained further. Authors have
themselves mentioned that "attitudes may evolve with personal experiences and transitions such assexual debut….. sexual debut was associated with more gender equitable attitudes among females"but why this could be ,is missing from the explanation. The information given from the literature"Previous studies have shown that adolescent decision-making, including about sex, is heavilyinfluenced by peer groups" talks about initiation of sex and not about GEM directly hence doesnot help explaining the current findings much.
Comment 9:
Since structural equation modeling (SEM) is considered as a form of causal modeling authors'
statement that "given the cross-sectional nature of the data, we cannot conclude causality betweenthe relationships" is contradictory.
Are the methods appropriate and well described?
If not, please specify what is required in your comments to the authors.
No
Does the work include the necessary controls?
If not, please specify which controls are required in your comments to the authors.
NoAre the conclusions drawn adequately supported by the data shown?
If not, please explain in your comments to the authors.
NoAre you able to assess any statistics in the manuscript or would you recommend an
additional statistical review?If an additional statistical review is recommended, please specify what aspects require furtherassessment in your comments to the editors.
I am able to assess the statistics
Quality of written English
Please indicate the quality of language in the manuscript:
Needs some language corrections before being publishedDeclaration of competing interests
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