Abstract
Adolescence is increasingly recognised as a crucial life stage from both a social and developmental perspective. Decisions made during adolescence – from dropping out from school, to getting married early, to engaging in risky behaviours – can have lifelong implications. At the same time, this is an important period of neurobiological development, particularly of socio-emotional and non-cognitive skills. In all, these two factors make adolescence a period of heightened vulnerability to adverse environmental factors but also opportunity for intervention. Adolescent girls in rural India face particular pressures: poverty, highly conservative gender norms and customs around women’s marriage, education and role within the household combine to put girls at exceptionally high risk of child marriage, poor sexual and reproductive health, early drop-out from school, poor mental health and poor development of key socio-emotional and non-cognitive skills.
In this study, we aim to assess the impact of an integrated community-based programme, PAnKH, on adolescent girls’ marriage, education, mental health, gender attitudes and socio-emotional and non-cognitive skills. The programme works with unmarried and married adolescent girls aged 12-19 years, their parents and in-laws and other community members. The programme consists of (i) group education sessions for adolescent girls, (ii) sports sessions for adolescent girls, (iii) social campaigning and community mobilization activities. Through providing information and skills, the programme aims to help girls stay in or return to school, resist child and early marriage practices and make informed decisions about their SRH needs. Through providing a safe and supportive space and specific training around negotiation skills it hopes to improve girls’ mental health and non-cognitive skills. Moreover, PAnKH aims to positively transform norms and values relating to girls in their communities. We use a three arm randomized design to assess the effects of two different models: one which engages directly with adolescent girls through group education and sports sessions and a second which, in addition, engages with and mobilises the wider community. The study will allow us to assess how feasible community-based programmes can alter key outcomes for adolescent girls.