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16,487 reports · page 1484 of 1649
Replication code and supplementary materials for Baruwa et al. (2026), analysing girls’ education, child marriage, and adolescent pregnancy in Kano State, Nigeria using PMA Nigeria data.
William Edward Rudgard, Ololade Julius Baruwa, Broline Sagini Asuma
According to recent data, in Nepal, 38.2% of women aged 20-24 years are married by the age of 18. This analysis of CARE's Tipping Point Initiative seeks to compare Nepali adolescent boys' and girls' perceptions of empirical and normative expectations around child, early and forced marriage. A baseline survey of 1,134 adolescent girls and 1,154 adolescent boys provided 11 items for descriptive quantitative analysis. Thirty in-depth interviews and 16 focus groups were conducted with young people aged 12-16 years and analysed using modified Grounded Theory. Themes in the data produced thick descriptions of gender roles/responsibilities, employment, mobility and marriage. Comparisons by gender of normative and empirical expectations, and sanctions on child, early and forced marriage were produced. Gender roles/responsibilities underpin social norms for mobility, marriage and employment, and are connected by subthemes with a focus on responsibility for household chores, interaction between unmarried adolescents, education/financial stability, honour/reputation, and parental decision-makers). Participants agreed on gendered labour, women's employment, and parents as decision-makers. Areas of disagreement included repercussions for interactions between unmarried adolescents, girls' mobility, attributes of the ideal woman, and maintaining family honour. Programming recommendations include focusing on the inter-relatedness of boys' and girls' wellbeing, communication between girls and parents, and structural support for education Research recommendations include identifying factors underlying sexual harassment and constructs of masculinity and femininity.
Grace Morrow, Kathryn M. Yount, Irina Bergenfeld et al.
The issue of stunting, although it has generally decreased, is still accompanied by an elevated risk of morbidity and mortality. The Nurturing Care approach integrates five caregiving components, one of which is adequate nutritional fulfillment. However, there are not many publications that discuss this problem, including in Indonesia. The aim of study was to examine parental feeding practices and children’s dietary habits in stunted children. A case-control design was conducted on 80 participants consist of two groups: stunted and control children aged 24-36 months. Data were collected from structured questionnaires filled out by parents. Chi-square and mann-whitney analysis with statistical significance expressed at 95% CI were used. This study identified a substantial correlation between exclusive breastfeeding and the prevalence of stunting (p=0.02). There was no relationship between the age of introducing complementary feeding and the administration of multivitamins with the incidence of stunting. The score for providing an environment with healthy food in the stunting group was significantly lower (p=0.01) compared to the control group. Furthermore, the analysis revealed no correlation between children dietary habit and the occurrence of stunting in children. It shows that the importance of parents’ role in nurturing care for stunting. Adequate parental feeding practices especially in providing a healthy food environment should be apply early to prevent stunting.
Rizana Fajrunni’mah, Dwirini Retno Gunarti, Mohamad Sadikin et al.
Background: Nurturing care of young children is aimed at promoting lifelong, intergenerational health and well‐being, as well as social and economic benefits. This study is aimed at qualitatively exploring maternal perceptions related to nurturing care, their access to information and support for caregiving, the home and community environments and practices, and how caregivers promote infants’ health and well‐being in Soweto, South Africa. Methods: The study employed a sequential, two‐stage process. First, three focus group discussions were conducted with a total of 19 mothers of children aged 0–24 months, which then informed 12 in‐depth interviews (four women from each focus group discussion). Focus group discussions and interviews were audio recorded and transcribed verbatim and data were analysed using thematic analysis. Results: The health and well‐being of infants were generally described in relation to their feeding and growth and how physically active they were. The need for pregnancy and caregiving information, accompanied by opportunities to discuss this with a health care worker or other women, was highlighted by participants in this study. Potentially obesogenic and non‐responsive infant and young child feeding practices were commonly reported by mothers. Responsive caregiving was described as taking care of children’s physical needs, providing them with love, and playing with them. Female matriarchs were particularly influential in providing caregiving advice and support for mothers. Naturally occurring interactions, such as talking and singing, were commonly reported practices to promote children’s development in the home. Safety concerns were ubiquitous and limited children’s play and exploration outside the home. Conclusions: This is one of few studies to explore caregivers’ perceptions of nurturing care in the South African context and the first to focus specifically on the first 1000 days. Thus, the study findings can contribute to strengthening initiatives to support caregivers to provide nurturing care for young children in South Africa and other similar contexts. Findings point to the need for better targeted information and support for mothers and other caregivers around nurturing care, especially elements related to infant and young child feeding (including responsive feeding), responsive care, early learning, and how to address safety in the home. There is also a gap in the provision of appropriate information and opportunities to engage with peers and health care workers around issues pertinent to pregnant women within current services. These deficiencies can be addressed through strengthening existing services, leveraging current platforms of care and support for pregnant women and young children, particularly through the health system.
Wiedaad Slemming, Emmanuel Cohen, Alessandra Prioreschi et al.
Background: There has been much speculation about the role of inequitable gender norms and early marriage in mental health and suicide risks in girls and young women, but no prospective study has yet investigated this relationship. Understanding these links has become particularly important in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic which has led to increased risk of child marriage in the most vulnerable girls. Methods: We examined the association between early marriage and mental health in girls using data from Understanding the Lives of Adolescents and Young Adults (UDAYA), a longitudinal study in adolescents in Uttar Pradesh and Bihar, India. The study included girls who were unmarried at wave 1 (2015-2016) and participated at wave 2 data collection (2018-2019). Information on mental health (Patient Health Questionnaire-9 (PHQ-9)), suicidal thoughts, plans and attempts were collected at both waves. Logistic regression with survey weights was used to estimate the association between marrying between the two waves and mental health. Findings: Between waves 1 and 2, 1825 (23%) participants (n = 7864) married. Unmarried girls with depressive symptoms (PHQ score≥9) at wave 1 had greater odds of transitioning into marriage by wave 2 than those without (adjusted-OR 1.5; 95% CI 1.1 to 2.0). The odds of wave 2 depressive symptoms were higher in newly married vs unmarried girls (adjusted-OR 2.0; 95% CI 1.6-2.5). Among newly married girls, the odds of depressive symptoms were higher for those who experienced any abuse than those who did not (adjusted-OR 1.6; 95% CI 1.2-2.2). This effect was larger for girls who had not given birth (adjusted-OR 2.2; 95% CI 1.4-3.3). Interpretation: Our findings show poor mental health preceded and was a consequence of child marriage. Mental health should be considered in policies and programming aimed at reducing early marriage; equally the mental health of young brides should be a focus for community and maternal health services. Funding: Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and David and Lucile Packard Foundation.
Shilpa Aggarwal, Kate Louise Francis, S. Ghazaleh Dashti et al.
The IECD intervention strategy implemented in rural China effectively improved the mental health of caregivers, optimizes families' child feeding and early stimulation behaviors, while reducing violent discipline and other risk factors. IECD provides better nurturing care for the early development of children aged 0-35 months in rural China.
Huifeng Shi, J X Zhang, Xichen Wang et al.
At the heart of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) is the vision to "leave no one behind, and to see that all children survive, thrive and transform. However, some categories of children may remain left behind owing to their disproportionate exposure to the risk of threats and deficit of attention to the social and ecological climate that characterizes the various systems in which they are found. This study is concerned with one major question: Despite diverse local and international instruments that favor full nurturance and development of children, what social forces play as threat to full nurturance care in the context of children living in Orphan homes? Nurturing care framework and Brofenbrener's ecological system theory were adopted as the analytical frameworks. Research design was exploratory. Data were collected through sessions of in-depth-interview with orphanage managers, caregivers, and social workers on the socio-ecology drivers of threat to children living within the orphan home space and its implications for nurturance care across the various complex systems of the child's environment. The study found various factors across the complex systems of child development - microsystem, mesosystem, exosystem, microsysm and lastly, chronosystem- which undermine caregivers' delivery and increases children's vulnerability and risk of missing out on effective nurturance care. These vulnerabilities are endemic realities of social, and bio-ecologcal space in which child development occurs. This study recommends specialized interventions and policy directives relevant for each identified threat. It also calls for a stronger political will in improving the conditions of this category of the children while within the orphan home space and ultimately, actions towards deinstitutionalization of children.
Olayinka Modupe Onayemi, Given Hapunda
The World Health Organization identified the promotion of "Nurturing Care Environments" as a global health priority. Responsive caregiving, 1 of 5 domains describing nurturing care, is critical for healthy child development. Relatively little research has evaluated population-level interventions aimed to increase responsive caregiving during the first 1,000 days of an infant's life. In this pilot study, we evaluated an intervention designed for population-level dissemination that targeted responsive caregiving. The self-guided behavioral skills training aimed to teach mothers to imitate infant vocalizations. The intervention was delivered within an on-line asynchronous training. All 3 mothers increased vocal imitative behavior following training without receiving coaching or behavior-specific feedback from an implementer. The results offer a preliminary proof of concept with implications for population-level intervention design and evaluation.
Kerry A. Shea, Tyra P. Sellers, Sandra G. Smith et al.
The United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) Community Infant and Young Child Feeding Counselling Package (C-IYCF CP) is used globally for infant and young child feeding (IYCF) counseling. With the C-IYCF CP last updated 8 y ago, mapping existing nurturing care content, identifying gaps, and documenting current country-level changes offers a unique opportunity to guide recommendations to strengthen the nurturing care content of this package. The primary study aims were to: 1) identify and map existing nurturing care content within UNICEF's C-IYCF CP, 2) identify gaps related to nurturing care or feeding elements within the C-IYCF CP, 3) identify country-level nurturing care adaptations to the C-IYCF CP, and 4) identify best practices and lessons learned from country adaptations that can be recommended for inclusion in the C-IYCF CP. The assessment included 4 phases: 1) conduct an iterative process to identify and map nurturing care elements within the C-IYCF CP using a codebook explicitly developed for this assessment; 2) identify gaps in the C-IYCF CP; 3) apply the codebook to IYCF packages from 11 countries, revise, then finalize the codebook; and 4) identify and interview key informants from 4 countries whose IYCF packages had the most comprehensive nurturing care content plus 1 country where health care professionals make routine mother–child home visits. The C-IYCF CP contained limited nurturing care content, especially around safety/security and early learning. All 5 countries interviewed had systematically identified and included priority nurturing care content in each package, yet content level varied. Two countries were also incorporating information technology into the training and delivery of the C-IYCF CP. Existing country-level best practices can address nurturing care elements missing from UNICEF's C-IYCF CP. Sharing these practices can allow countries to make context-driven, evidence-informed decisions on the nurturing care content to prioritize.
Amber J. Hromi‐Fiedler, Rafael Pérez‐Escamilla, Sofía Segura‐Pérez et al.
This article examines intersections between schooling, child marriage, and adolescent pregnancy in a longitudinal, mixed-methods study of Honduran girls. It explores (a) girls’ enrollment and dropout of school patterns and how these relate to timing of marriage and/or childbirth, (b) the factors associated with dropout, early marriage, and/or early childbearing, and (c) reenrollment patterns after marriage/childbirth. We find that household income in early adolescence predicts school dropout, early union, and early childbearing. Most girls discontinued their studies due to lack of financial resources or no longer wanting to be a student rather than due to marriage or motherhood. Only a small percentage return to school. This study can inform the timing and nature of efforts to protect girls and increase their chances of successfully completing secondary school, delaying marriage, and preventing early pregnancy.
Erin E. Murphy-Graham, Alison Klebanoff Cohen, Diana Pacheco-Montoya
