The Relationship between Gender Norms and Psychosocial Functioning Among Adolescents in Southern Uganda

Background and Purpose: Gender norms, deeply entrenched in Uganda, exert pronounced pressure on adolescents to adhere to traditional roles, exacerbating psychosocial distress, especially among girls burdened with increased household responsibilities after parental loss. This paper assessed the relationship between gender norms and psychosocial functioning among adolescents orphaned by HIV and AIDS in Uganda.

Methods: Our study utilized baseline data from a two-arm cluster-randomized trial for orphaned adolescents. A total of 346 adolescents (10-17 years), and their caregivers (dyads) were recruited from 10 rural public primary schools. Psychosocial functioning was measured by depressive symptoms, hopelessness and self-concept. A multilevel linear regression was used to assess the association between gender norms and psychosocial functioning, by fitting a model separately for each of the three psychosocial outcomes. We assessed for multicollinearity using VIFs, and there was no multicollinearity. We presented β coefficients along with 95% confidence intervals.

Results: We found that more egalitarian gender norms were positively associated with self-concept, indicating that participants with more equitable gender norms tended to have an enhanced self-concept (β = 0.75; 95% CI = 0.12 to –1.38). Females had significantly lower self-concept, compared to boys (β = -2.34; 95% CI = -3.38 to -1.30). Having other relatives as primary caregivers, social support and family cohesion were also associated with higher self-concept.

Conclusions and Implications: The study highlights the significance of fostering egalitarian gender norms to enhance the self-concept of adolescents. This emphasizes the necessity of incorporating elements that address unequal gender norms in interventions aimed at improving self-concept among adolescents.