Peer-reviewed article
Hope, Self-Efficacy, and Crushed Dreams: Exploring How Adolescent Girls’ Future Aspirations Relate to Marriage and Childbearing in Rural Mozambique
Catherine A. Packer, Kathleen Ridgeway, Rachel Lenzi, Lazáro Gonzaléz‐Calvo, Troy D. Moon et al. ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001This study examined how hope and self-efficacy relate to adolescent girls' ability to achieve their future aspirations in rural Mozambique, where early marriage and childbearing are common. Researchers interviewed 47 girls aged 13-19 at the end of an intervention and one year later, identifying three groups: those with hope and self-efficacy who were on track to reach goals, those with hope but inconsistent self-efficacy who were falling behind, and those lacking both hope and self-efficacy who took no action. While individual psychological factors like hope and self-efficacy helped girls progress toward their goals, poverty, early marriage, and childbearing remained major obstacles. The study concludes that interventions need both individual-level support and broader external changes like school retention, economic opportunities, and contraceptive access.
Key points
- Three distinct groups emerged based on levels of hope and self-efficacy: hopeful with self-efficacy (on track), hopeful with mixed self-efficacy (not on track), and lacking hope and self-efficacy (not taking action)
- Having hope and self-efficacy combined with behavioral competence enabled girls to make progress toward achieving their goals
- Poverty, early marriage, and childbearing were identified as major external obstacles preventing girls from achieving their aspirations
- Individual-level protective factors alone are insufficient; external assets including community and structural interventions are needed
- Recommended interventions should promote school retention, sustainable economic opportunities, and improved adolescent contraceptive access and use
Limitations
This qualitative study with 47 girls provides rich descriptive data but cannot establish causal relationships or generalize findings beyond the study population and context. The study does not compare outcomes between intervention and control groups, limiting conclusions about intervention effectiveness.
Abstract
In rural Mozambique, girls commonly marry and have children before age 18. We use a Positive Youth Development lens to examine how constructs of confidence and competence were related to adolescent girls’ ability to and progress toward achieving their future aspirations. As part of an intervention evaluation, we used a longitudinal qualitative design, conducting in-depth interviews with 47 adolescent girls aged 13 to 19 at the end of the intervention and 1 year later. We explored adolescent girls’ future aspirations and examined their progress toward achieving their goals and three distinct groups emerged: (a) hopeful with self-efficacy, on track to reach goals; (b) hopeful with mixed levels of self-efficacy, not on track to reach goals; and (c) lacking hope and self-efficacy, not taking any actions to reach goals. Having hope and self-efficacy and behavioral competence enabled progress toward achieving goals, but poverty, early marriage, and childbearing were major obstacles. We conclude that fostering individual-level protective factors (e.g., hope and self-efficacy) is useful in interventions targeted toward young women to prevent pregnancy and child marriage, but that external assets (e.g., community, structural interventions) should be promoted to facilitate girls staying in school, provide sustainable economic opportunities, and improve adolescent contraceptive access and use.
Findings the Hub has extracted
Each claim below is labelled by its type of design and links back to this report.
- Intervention
- An unspecified intervention aimed at improving hope, self-efficacy, and confidence in adolescent girls to support achievement of future aspirations
- Population
- 47 adolescent girls aged 13-19 in rural Mozambique
Key finding
Girls with high hope and self-efficacy were on track to achieve goals despite external barriers