“To Be a Guy Is to Be Human”: Outcomes of the WiseGuyz Program Through Photo-Based Evaluation

Abstract

Gender-transformative approaches (i.e., approaches that support male-identified individuals to critique and resist stereotypical male gender role norms that negatively affect health and well-being) are increasingly recognized as a key health promotion strategy. However, there is limited evidence to date on gender-transformative interventions for male-identified adolescents. In addition, given the dynamic and socially constructed nature of gender, methods beyond quantitative data collection are needed to gain a holistic understanding of promising gender-transformative health promotion approaches. One newer method to capture lived experiences with adolescents is photo-based evaluation, where youth program participants take pictures to represent their knowledge, attitudes, and/or behaviors before and after a program. The present study presents findings from the photo-based evaluation of a gender-transformative health promotion program called WiseGuyz. WiseGuyz is offered to mid-adolescent, male-identified youth in school and community settings, and is designed to promote mental and sexual health and prevent violence. Six youth photographers from a rural Canadian setting took part in this evaluation, taking photos to represent what being a guy in their world meant before and after WiseGuyz. Youth then participated in an individual visual storytelling interview and a group-based photovoice process. Key themes in relation to masculinities that emerged from these data were around changes to (1) social norms and (2) emotionality following program participation, and the need for a safe program space to support these changes. This study adds to literature demonstrating the promise of gender-transformative approaches with adolescents, with implications for future health promotion research and practice with male-identified youth.

What shapes attitudes on gender roles among adolescents in Bangladesh

“…These programs would benefit from taking a gender-transformative approach. Gender-transformative programs address harmful aspects of masculinity, allowing males to challenge and critique discriminatory norms and roles and resist masculine stereotypes that have a negative impact on health and wellbeing ( 49 , 52 , 62 ). International examples for school-based education can be seen in Australia's Breaking the Man Code workshops, which aimed to challenge masculinities with young men to encourage them to seek help for emotional problems and reduce suicide risk ( 49 ).…”

“…International examples for school-based education can be seen in Australia's Breaking the Man Code workshops, which aimed to challenge masculinities with young men to encourage them to seek help for emotional problems and reduce suicide risk ( 49 ). Similarly, the WiseGuyz Program in Canada engaged boys to reflect on, and challenge, gender-inequitable attitudes and behaviors ( 62 ).…”

Photo-Based Evaluation: A Method for Participatory Evaluation With Adolescents

“…Thus, smaller sample sizes are likely most feasible given this increased intensity. However, although only six youth participated in our initial application of this method, outcome data were robust (Exner-Cortens et al, 2020), and saturation was reached; from the research team’s perspective, the rich data were worth the sample size trade-off. While the number of youth in this study was not a limitation to gathering quality data, the limited variability in experiences was a drawback (i.e., as masculinities are dynamic and socially situated, we would ideally have five to six participants from several different contexts in future applications of this method).…”

“…With regard to utility, a theme that emerged during the analysis process was on the types of photos that participants took (literal vs. metaphorical), which we report on here. For findings specific to program impacts, please see Exner-Cortens et al (2020).…”

Towards a Common Understanding of Gender-Responsive Monitoring and Evaluation for Health Programs and Interventions: Evidence from a Scoping Review

“…Of the 31 articles that met the inclusion criteria, 26 (84%) were direct evaluations of interventions , four (13%) were systematic literature reviews of gender focused methods and evaluation tools [34][35][36][37], and one was a review of a large multi-site program [38]. Fourteen of the 26 (45%) evaluations were conducted in Sub-Saharan Africa [9][10][11][12]16,[21][22][23][24]26,28,[31][32][33] while the remaining articles focused on specific locations were split between North America (n=4) [17,18,27,29], the Middle East (n=4) [8,13,15,30], and India (n=4) [14,19,20,25].…”