Intimate partner sexual violence, gender norms and mental health during high school: contributions to the implementation and process analysis of a human rights-based psychosocial intervention

Abstract

International research indicates that the most effective sexual and reproductive health and rights promotion interventions are the ones that seek to transform gender relations and norms; however, few studies analyze the processes that make these transformations possible, in particular in the context of school-based interventions.This project is related to the thematic project "Youth vulnerabilities to STI/HIV and to dating violence: evaluating a human rights-based psychosocial intervention" (2017/25950-2) and to the activities planned for this fellowship opportunity regarding the implementation and evaluation of a program of education in sexuality, as detailed in the "informação sobre o processo seletivo" document annexed to this project. Based on his previous experiences with Intimate Partner Violence (IPV), the fellow will actively collaborate to the design of the intervention regarding this theme and will co-coordinate this part of the intervention. In the Sorocaba schools, he will use the proceedings and methodology of the project and follow the implementation of the whole intervention. Objectives: this project fits in the objectives (1) and (3) of the thematic project, which refer to the evaluation of the extent and the processes by which an intervention based on a psychosocial and multicultural human-rights (1) will modify the school community members' opinions and attitudes through the incorporation of human rights principles and the comprehension of the social construction of different youth experiences related to sexuality, violence and prevention; and (2) will affect IPV related by participant students, as well as their beliefs and attitudes which translate into racism and LGBTphobia in the school context and the eventual related mental suffering. Specifically, this project will aim at understanding, in light of gender equity promotion, how traditional gender norms and relations respond to a psychosocial intervention in school environment and if that process contributes to the mitigation of related intimate partner sexual violence and psychosocial suffering. Method: this study will rely mainly on ethnography and combind diverse proceedings: participant observation, individual and collective (focus group) interviews of students of diverse ages and self-referred races/colors/ethnies, gender identities and sexual orientations. The interviewees selection will result from the ethnography and the expressive profiles and contents along the participant observation sessions of the general process and, especially, of the planned interventions. Both interviews and observations will be oriented by semi-structured scripts designed to produce and register narratives of relevant scenes in everyday life and school background contexts. In accordance with the intervention methodology planned in the thematic project, reflexive dynamics will be included which will allow the scene collection and analysis to be realized collaboratively with the workshop participants. Data analysis will occur continuously with each site's small teams and will articulate the vulnerability and human rights framework to comprehend health promotion and prevention in the perspective of gender equity and interseccional analysis. The products resulting of collected data interpretation will contribute to reports, congress communications and publications about the intervention's impact, in collaboration with the senior researchers. As first author, the fellow will specifically publish about IPV and psychosocial suffering in large impact reviews, about the intimity of attitude and practice changes in everyday life scenes, as well as about factors associated with IPV. (AU)