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 National Science
Foundation Award #0503350 |
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Doctoral Dissertation Research: Strategies for Avoiding Risk: Behavior Autonomy among Adolescent Girls in Rural Malawi |
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| Investigator(s): |
Patricia Rieker (PI)
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| Sponsor: |
Boston University, MA 02215 6173534365
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| Start Date/Expiration Date |
2005-07-01 to 2006-06-30 (amended 2005-07-15) |
| Awarded Amount to Date: |
$7,340 |
| Abstract: SES-0503350
Patricia P. Rieker
Michelle J. Poulin
Boston University
The overall aim of the research is to identify the behavioral factors and conditions that enable adolescent girls to develop successful strategies of HIV prevention in the context of the AIDS pandemic in sub-Saharan Africa, where gender inequality is widely considered to be a major contributor to the spread of the disease. Thus much of the social science research tends to focus on the construction of men as dominant and women and girls as vulnerable to infection because they are poorer and less powerful, and therefore dependent on the exchange of risky behavior for basic survival needs. While important, this focus diverts attention away from the ways in which young women and girls do exercise autonomy and control over their lives. For example, the majority of adolescent girls are not infected, even in poverty-stricken rural Malawi, the country with the 8th highest HIV prevalence in the world. To address the knowledge gap, this research asks the following questions: What are the characteristics of girls who avoid risky behavior? What are the aspects of their social and cultural context that encourage them to make safer behavioral decisions, despite their poverty? And, what are the identifiable entry points that can be incorporated into effective interventions that strengthen their capacity to prevent infection?
The research will be conducted in two locales in Malawi, selected because they are quite different in many respects: the northern Tumbukas are patrilineal, more educated and Protestant, and the southern Yaos, on the other hand, are less educated, Muslim, and follow a matrilineal system of inheritance and matrilocal residence pattern following marriage. A mixed-methods approach will be employed to address the questions discussed above. (1) Survey data for approximately 1200 young men and women (age 15-24) will be analyzed in order to understand: a) what characteristics distinguish those who have successfully avoided infection from those who have not, and b) what social conditions and situations enable young women to protect themselves from HIV and STI infection. The larger sample is part of the on-going longitudinal study, the Malawi Diffusion and Ideational Change Project (MDICP), which investigates the role of networks on various health-related outcomes. (2) In-depth interviews will be conducted with approximately 80 unmarried young women and men selected from the larger survey sample stratified by region of the country, age and infection status. Collectively, these data will enable me to describe the development of strategies of prevention, the behavior autonomy exercised to implement these strategies in premarital relationships, and the contextual differences in both their development and implementation.
The information gathered from this study will be the first of its kind in Malawi, and in all likelihood, sub-Saharan Africa, especially with its unique emphasis on how young women protect themselves from infection These findings are expected to contribute to the fields of women's studies, public health, and medical sociology in important ways, both methodologically and theoretically. Just as the academic literature is limited in scope, so too, is the research on which prevention programs are based. Typically and understandably, research on women rests on their construction as poor and powerless, or on those who are known to be at high risk (e.g. commercial sex workers). The focus of this project, in contrast, is on young women who provide examples of success at avoiding infection, and thus may influence public health programs intended to provide support to those who are struggling to survive an epidemic. |
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| NSF Org: |
SES - Division of Social and Economic Sciences |
| Award Number: |
0503350 |
| Award Instrument: |
Standard Grant |
| Program Manager: |
Patricia White
SES Division of Social and Economic Sciences
SBE Directorate for Social, Behavioral & Economic Sciences
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| NSF Program(s): |
SOCIOLOGY |
| Field Application(s): |
Human Subjects |
| Program Reference Code(s): |
UNDERGRADUATE EDUCATION, 9178 |
| Program Element Code(s): |
1331 |
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