Teizazu Hawi, Gruer Caitlin, Mandara Elisia, Sommer Marni
Department of Sociomedical Sciences, Mailman School of Public Health, Columbia University, New York, NY, United States.
Front Reprod Health. 2023 Feb 10;5:1024550. doi: 10.3389/frph.2023.1024550. eCollection 2023.
Many adolescents in Tanzania do not receive timely and comprehensive puberty education. This study explored faith-based organizations a site for puberty education. Two puberty books, each developed through participatory research with Tanzanian adolescents and stakeholders, were promoted to 177 Christian denomination churches in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania to understand the factors that faith leaders considered in their decision to purchase puberty books, or share information about the intervention to their peers and congregants.
Data collection included routine monitoring weekly reports and ethnographic observation. Data were analyzed using the Ecological Framework for Health Promotion to capture how individual, interpersonal, and institutional factors influenced leaders' decisions to purchase or promote puberty books.
At the individual level, leaders cited their personal experiences in their support for the intervention, but leaders' time and confidence in their ability to effectively promote books to others were barriers to participation. Interpersonally, the diffusion of information between church leaders, particularly when information came from well-known or respected leaders, emerged as an important factor in leaders' willingness to promote books. At the institutional level, leaders' decisions were impacted by resources, institutional culture, and institutional hierarchy. Importantly, twelve churches in the sample purchased books. Limited financial resources and the need to receive approval from denominational leaders were discussed by leaders as barriers to purchasing books.
Despite research showing high religiosity in Tanzania, the role of religious institutions in providing puberty education has remained unexplored. Our results inform future research and practice by providing an articulation of the socioecological factors that played a role in faith leaders' decisions related to puberty education interventions in Tanzania.
坦桑尼亚的许多青少年没有接受及时、全面的青春期教育。本研究探索了以宗教为基础的组织作为青春期教育场所的情况。向坦桑尼亚达累斯萨拉姆的177个基督教教派教堂推广了两本青春期书籍，每本书都是通过与坦桑尼亚青少年及利益相关者的参与式研究编写而成，以了解宗教领袖在决定购买青春期书籍，或向其同龄人及教友分享有关该干预措施的信息时所考虑的因素。
数据收集包括常规监测（每周报告）和人种学观察。使用健康促进生态框架对数据进行分析，以了解个人、人际和机构因素如何影响领袖购买或推广青春期书籍的决定。
在个人层面，领袖们提到他们的个人经历是支持该干预措施的原因，但领袖们的时间以及他们对有效向他人推广书籍能力的信心是参与的障碍。在人际层面，教会领袖之间信息的传播，特别是当信息来自知名或受尊敬的领袖时，成为领袖们愿意推广书籍的一个重要因素。在机构层面，领袖们的决定受到资源、机构文化和机构层级的影响。重要的是，样本中的12个教堂购买了书籍。领袖们讨论了有限的财政资源以及需要获得教派领袖的批准是购买书籍的障碍。
尽管研究表明坦桑尼亚宗教信仰浓厚，但宗教机构在提供青春期教育方面的作用仍未得到探索。我们的研究结果通过阐明在坦桑尼亚宗教领袖与青春期教育干预措施相关的决定中发挥作用的社会生态因素，为未来的研究和实践提供了参考。
