London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, London, UK.
Georgetown University, Washington, DC, USA.
J Interpers Violence. 2024 Mar;39(5-6):1206-1227. doi: 10.1177/08862605231204561. Epub 2023 Oct 21.
Widespread among adolescents in England, dating and relationship violence (DRV) is associated with subsequent injuries and serious mental health problems. While DRV prevention interventions often aim to shift harmful social norms, no established measures exist to assess relevant norms and their role in mediating DRV outcomes. We conducted cognitive interviews exploring the understandability and answerability of candidate measures of social norms relating to DRV and gender roles, informing measure refinement. In all, 11 participants aged 13 to 15 from one school in England participated. Cognitive interviews tested two items assessing descriptive norms (beliefs about what behaviors are typical), three assessing injunctive norms (beliefs about what is socially acceptable), and (for comparison) one assessing personal attitudes. Findings were summarized by drawing on interview notes. Summaries and interview notes were subjected to thematic analysis. For some participants, injunctive norms items required further explanation to clarify that items asked about others' views, not their own. Lack of certainty about, and perceived heterogeneity of, behaviors and views among a broad reference group detracted from answerability. Participants were better able to answer items for which they could draw on concrete experiences of observing or discussing relevant behaviors or social sanctions. Data suggest that a narrowed reference group could improve answerability for items assessing salient norms. Findings informed refinements to social norms measures. It is possible to develop social norms measures that are understandable and answerable for adolescents in England. Measures should assess norms that are salient and publicly manifest among a cohesive and influential reference group.
在英格兰青少年中普遍存在的约会和恋爱暴力（DRV）与随后的伤害和严重的心理健康问题有关。虽然 DRV 预防干预通常旨在改变有害的社会规范，但目前还没有评估相关规范及其在调解 DRV 结果中的作用的既定措施。我们进行了认知访谈，探讨了与 DRV 和性别角色相关的社会规范候选衡量标准的可理解性和可回答性，为衡量标准的改进提供了信息。共有来自英国一所学校的 11 名 13 至 15 岁的参与者参加了认知访谈。认知访谈测试了两项评估描述性规范（关于什么行为是典型的信念）的项目，三项评估规范性规范（关于什么是社会可接受的信念），以及（作为比较）一项评估个人态度的项目。研究结果通过引用访谈记录进行了总结。总结和访谈记录进行了主题分析。对于一些参与者来说，规范性规范项目需要进一步解释，以澄清这些项目是询问他人的观点，而不是自己的观点。对广泛的参考群体中的行为和观点缺乏确定性和可变性，影响了可回答性。参与者能够更好地回答他们可以从观察或讨论相关行为或社会制裁中汲取具体经验的项目。研究结果表明，缩小参考群体可以提高评估突出规范的项目的可回答性。研究结果为社会规范措施的改进提供了信息。为英格兰的青少年制定可理解和可回答的社会规范措施是可行的。这些措施应该评估在一个有凝聚力和有影响力的参考群体中突出且公开表现出来的规范。
