DOI: 10.3886/e107762v1
title: Measuring Young Adolescent Perceptions of Relationships: a vignette based approach to exploring gender equality

description: The Global Early Adolescent Study (GEAS) is a multi-country study among adolescents aged 10-14 that explores the relationships between gender norms and adolescent health and wellbeing (sexual and reproductive health, mental health, gender-based and interpersonal violence, school retention and healthy sexuality) cross-culturally and across time. The development and implementation of the study began with a narrative process of listening to the voices of young people in 15 countries globally and has been reported in detail elsewhere (https://www.sciencedirect.com/journal/journal-of-adolescent-health/vol/61/issue/4/suppl/S). Subsequently, the study involved the development and piloting of several instruments with approximately 120 young people in each of 14 sites in an equal number of countries on 5 continents, including Shanghai, China; Hanoi, Viet Nam; New Delhi, India; Assuit, Egypt; Nairobi, Kenya; Blantyre, Malawi; Cape Town, South Africa, Kinshasa, DR Congo; Ile Ife, Nigeria; Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, Dar Es Salam, Tanzania; Ghent, Belgium; Edinburgh, UK; Cuenca, Ecuador, Cochabamba, Bolivia; Baltimore, United States. After reanalysis, all measures were revised and repiloted with 75 young people equally divided between the sexes and across 10 to 14 year olds. Three instruments were finally developed including: a measure of gender norms, a 10-module measure of health and social contexts and a vignettes measure of gender equality in relationships. The vignettes measure assesses how young people in a community think about situations differently if a boy or girl is in the lead. As such it measures the gap in perceptions that boys and girls express depending on the sex of the protagonist. The development of the vignettes measure for early adolescents is the focus of this paper.
description: Not available.
description: Response Rates: Kinshasa, DRC: 100% (2847/2847);<br>Shanghai, China: 97.74% (1776/1814);<br>Cuenca, Ecuador: 100% (704/704).
description: audio computer-assisted self interview (ACASI)~~computer-assisted personal interview (CAPI)~~computer-assisted self interview (CASI)~~
description: Young adolescents aged 10-14 from urban poor communities in Kinshasa (DRC), Shanghai (China), and Cuenca (Ecuador).Smallest Geographic Unit: City of different countries
description: Kinshasa, DRC: Kinshasa is the one among several countries that will implement intervention program. Study sample captures both school enrollment status and study group features. Participants from control and intervention arms were grouped together at baseline for vignette analysis. A multi-stage sampling procedure was applied, including neighborhood selection, school selection, and study participants selection within school. Neighborhoods were randomly selected and separated into control zone and intervention zone. Among in-school group, schools were selected based on school size after stratification by neighborhood and school type. In-school adolescents in intervention arm were self-selected based on their interests in intervention participation, whereas control group adolescents were randomly selected. Nearly 1000 adolescents were recruited into each arm. Control and intervention participants among out-of-school adolescents were randomly selected with approximately 400 for each group. In-school and out-of-school adolescents were chosen from the same neighborhood. Final inclusion criteria for study participation is adolescents aged between 10 to 14 with both obtained self-assent and parental consent. Additional criteria were applied to out-of-school children selection, such as left school over at least two years, not expecting for school enrollment in the next year, and not planning to leave the current neighborhood.<br><br>Shanghai, China: Shanghai is research-only site without intervention program. Two-stage sampling process was conducted to first select schools and then students within each school. Three schools were selected purposely with key informants from the Teacher Training College of the Jing’an District: one in Baoshan sub-district with about 250 students in each grade and another two in Pengpu sub-district with about 200 and 100 students in each grade respectively.  All eligible students in grades 6, 7, and 8 were recruited, resulting in a cluster sample of about 1700 adolescents aged of 10-14 years. <br><br>Cuenca, Ecuador: Cuenca is also a research-only site. Similarly, a two-stage sampling strategy was applied. Firstly, urban schools were selected based on students’ socioeconomic status, that is, only schools of attendants with low socioeconomic conditions were considered, and 70 eligible schools were established. 7 schools out of 70 were randomly selected. Secondly, within each school students (aged 10-14) were randomly selected and number of recruitments was proportional to the total number of students.