Project report
COVID-19-related knowledge, attitudes, and practices among adolescent girls in Bangladesh—Concept note
Sajeda Amin ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001The Population Council is conducting rapid phone-based surveys with 960 adolescent girls in Bangladesh to understand how COVID-19 and lockdowns are affecting their knowledge, attitudes, and practices. The study tracks changes in girls' schooling, time use, household responsibilities, and violence risks as factors that might increase child marriage. The multi-round survey also examines girls' access to services, mental health impacts, and compliance with social distancing measures during the pandemic.
Key points
- The study focuses on 960 adolescent girls in catchment areas of two skills-building programs affiliated with UNFPA-UNICEF Global Programme to End Child Marriage
- Research examines how pandemic-related lockdowns change girls' schooling experience, household care responsibilities, and economic scarcity as pathways to child marriage
- Survey measures COVID-19 knowledge and attitudes, school closures, violence and mental health risks, and resource needs during lockdown
- Later survey rounds will assess sexual and reproductive health service access, disease-related stigma, and social distancing compliance
- Study employs multi-round phone-based surveys to track changes over time
Limitations
This is a concept note describing a planned study, not a completed evaluation, so no outcome data or findings are available. The document does not specify when data collection occurs, sample characteristics beyond location, or what analysis methods will be used.
Abstract
The Population Council COVID-19 study team is implementing rapid phone-based surveys of a representative sample of girls living in the catchment area of two skills-building programs. The two programs (one with UNFPA, the Ministry of Women and Children Affairs; and the second with UNICEF and the Ministry of Education/DSHE) are affiliated with the UNFPA-UNICEF Global Programme to Accelerate Action to End Child Marriage. The overall goal of the programs is to prevent child marriage. The rapid assessment will explore how the pandemic and associated lockdown is changing girls' experience of schooling, time use, care responsibilities and household scarcity as mediating pathways to child marriage. The objectives are to assess COVID-19-related knowledge, attitudes, and practices; track changes over time; identify barriers to social distancing behavior change; and assess impact on lives and livelihoods. The multi-round survey of 960 adolescent girls includes questions on age, education, marital status, knowledge and attitudes, disruption due to school closing, risks related to violence and mental health, and resources needed during lockdown. In later rounds, we intend to include questions on service access for sexual and reproductive health and rights, stigma associated with disease acquisition, and compliance with social distancing.