BackgroundEarly adolescence (ages 10–14) is a period of increased expectations for boys and girls to adhere to socially constructed and often stereotypical norms that perpetuate gender inequalities. The endorsement of such gender norms is closely linked to poor adolescent sexual and reproductive and other health-related outcomes yet little is known about the factors that influence young adolescents’ personal gender attitudes.ObjectivesTo explore factors that shape gender attitudes in early adolescence across different cultural settings globally.MethodsA mixed-methods systematic review was conducted of the peer-reviewed literature in 12 databases from 1984–2014. Four reviewers screened the titles and abstracts of articles and reviewed full text articles in duplicate. Data extraction and quality assessments were conducted using standardized templates by study design. Thematic analysis was used to synthesize quantitative and qualitative data organized by the social-ecological framework (individual, interpersonal and community/societal-level factors influencing gender attitudes).ResultsEighty-two studies (46 quantitative, 31 qualitative, 5 mixed-methods) spanning 29 countries were included. Ninety percent of studies were from North America or Western Europe. The review findings indicate that young adolescents, across cultural settings, commonly express stereotypical or inequitable gender attitudes, and such attitudes appear to vary by individual sociodemographic characteristics (sex, race/ethnicity and immigration, social class, and age). Findings highlight that interpersonal influences (family and peers) are central influences on young adolescents’ construction of gender attitudes, and these gender socialization processes differ for boys and girls. The role of community factors (e.g. media) is less clear though there is some evidence that schools may reinforce stereotypical gender attitudes among young adolescents.ConclusionsThe findings from this review suggest that young adolescents in different cultural settings commonly endorse norms that perpetuate gender inequalities, and that parents and peers are especially central in shaping such attitudes. Programs to promote equitable gender attitudes thus need to move beyond a focus on individuals to target their interpersonal relationships and wider social environments. Such programs need to start early and be tailored to the unique needs of sub-populations of boys and girls. Longitudinal studies, particularly from low-and middle-income countries, are needed to better understand how gender attitudes unfold in adolescence and to identify the key points for intervention.

Adolescent sexual and reproductive health gained particular traction in Mozambique following the 1994 International Conference on Population and Development leading to the inception of Programa Geração Biz (PGB), a multi-sectoral initiative that was piloted starting in 1999 and fully scaled-up to all provinces by 2007. We conducted a systematic review of the literature to gather information on PGB and analyzed how it planned and managed the scale-up effort using the WHO-ExpandNet framework. PGB’s activities comprised a clear and credible innovation. Appropriate resource and user organizations further facilitated national scale-up. Challenges relating to the complex nature of the multi-sectoral approach and resistance due to norms about adolescent sexual and reproductive health hindered scaling-up in some geographic areas. The national government exhibited commitment and ownership to PGB through budgetary support and integration into multiple policies. This study adds to the documentation of successful scaling-up strategies that can provide guidance for policy makers and programme managers.

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This analysis is based on data from the Global Early Adolescent Study, which aims to understand the factors that predispose young people aged 10-14 years to positive or negative health trajectories. Specifically, interview transcripts from 202 adolescents and 191 parents across six diverse urban sites (Baltimore, Ghent, Nairobi, Ile Ife, Assuit and Shanghai) were analysed to compare the perceived risks associated with entering adolescence and how these risks differed by gender. Findings reveal that in all sites except Ghent, both young people and their parents perceived that girls face greater risks related to their sexual and reproductive health, and because of their sexual development, were perceived to require more protection. In contrast, when boys grow up, they and their parents recognised that their independence broadened, and parents felt that boys were strong enough to protect themselves. This has negative consequences as well, as boys were perceived to be more prone to risks associated with street violence and peer pressure. These differences in perceptions of vulnerability and related mobility are markers of a gender system that separates young women and men's roles, responsibilities and behaviours in ways that widen gender power imbalance with lifelong social and health consequences for people of both sexes.

The need for engaging men aged 15 to 44 years in family planning education and care is substantial and largely unmet despite national public health priorities to include men in reducing unintended pregnancies.

This paper applies a life-course perspective to the problem of early pregnancy and pregnancy-related mortality and morbidity in adolescents in developing countries. It describes the contribution that two categories of “pregnancy-focused” programmes make—firstly, the provision of effective care and support in the antenatal, childbirth, and postnatal periods (downstream programmes), and secondly, the provision of effective promotive, preventive, and curative care in the prepregnancy period (midstream programmes). It then makes the case for these pregnancy-focused programmes to be set within the context of a third type of programmes, upstream programmes, that is, the provision of promotive and preventive care that contributes to children and adolescents—both male and female—being well nourished, healthy, knowledgeable about their health, and motivated and empowered to protect their health. It provides examples of successful initiatives of all three types of programmes. Finally, it discusses some practical considerations in planning, implementing, and monitoring these three programmes in a coherent manner.

BackgroundAdolescents in Tanzania require health services that respond to their sexual and reproductive health – and other – needs and are delivered in a friendly and nonjudgemental manner. Systematizing and expanding the reach of quality adolescent friendly health service provision is part of the Tanzanian Ministry of Health and Social Welfare's (MOHSW) multi-component strategy to promote and safeguard the health of adolescents.ObjectiveWe set out to identify the progress made by the MOHSW in achieving the objective it had set in its National Adolescent Health and Development Strategy: 2002–2006, to systematize and extend the reach of Adolescent Friendly Health Services (AFHS) in the country.MethodsWe reviewed plans and reports from the MOHSW and journal articles on AFHS. This was supplemented with several of the authors’ experiences of working to make health services in Tanzania adolescent friendly.ResultsThe MOHSW identified four key problems with what was being done to make health services adolescent friendly in the country – firstly, it was not fully aware of the various efforts under way; secondly, there was no standardized definition of AFHS; thirdly, it had received reports that the quality of the AFHS being provided by some organizations was poor; and fourthly, only small numbers of adolescents were being reached by the efforts that were under way. The MOHSW responded to these problems by mapping existing services, developing a standardized definition of AFHS, charting out what needed to be done to improve their quality and expand their coverage, and integrating AFHS within wider policy and strategy documents and programmatic measurement instruments. It has also taken important preparatory steps to stimulate and support implementation.ConclusionThe MOHSW is aware that the focus of the effort must now shift from the national to the regional, council and local levels. The onus is on regional and council health management teams as well as health facility managers to take the steps needed to ensure that all adolescents in the country obtain the sexual and reproductive health (SRH) services they need, delivered in a friendly and non-judgemental manner. But they cannot do this without substantial and ongoing support.

Health communication has played a pivotal role in HIV prevention efforts since the beginning of the epidemic. The recent paradigm of combination prevention, which integrates behavioral, biomedical, and structural interventions, offers new opportunities for employing health communication approaches across the entire continuum of care. We describe key areas where health communication can significantly enhance HIV treatment, care, and prevention, presenting evidence from interventions that include health communication components. These interventions rely primarily on interpersonal communication, especially individual and group counseling, both within and beyond clinical settings to enhance the uptake of and continued engagement in care. Many successful interventions mobilize a network of trained community supporters or accompagnateurs, who provide education, counseling, psychosocial support, treatment supervision and other pragmatic assistance across the care continuum. Community treatment supporters reduce the burden on overworked medical providers, engage a wider segment of the community, and offer a more sustainable model for supporting people living with HIV. Additionally, mobile technologies are increasingly seen as promising avenues for ongoing cost-effective communication throughout the treatment cascade. A broader range of communication approaches, traditionally employed in HIV prevention efforts, that address community and sociopolitical levels through mass media, school- or workplace-based education, and entertainment modalities may be useful to interventions seeking to address the full care continuum. Future interventions would benefit from development of a framework that maps appropriate communication theories and approaches onto each step of the care continuum in order to evaluate the efficacy of communication components on treatment outcomes.