Focus group discussions with adolescent girls and their caregivers evaluating a radio drama aimed at changing the social norms driving age-disparate transactional sex in Tanzania – User Guide

Persistent identifiers

10.17037/DATA.00004220

Description

A set of seven anonymised transcripts for focus group discussions performed before (pre) and after (post) intervention. Five focus group discussions were conducted with in-school adolescent girls aged 13-15 years, with ten girls in each group. Additionally, one focus group discussion was conducted their male caregivers and one with their female caregivers, with nine caregivers in each group. Interviewees gave informed consent to participate in an exploratory evaluation of the Learning Initiative on Norms, Exploitation and Abuse (LINEA) radio drama intervention to prevent age-disparate transactional sex in Kigoma region, Tanzania between October and December 2021. Focus group discussions were conducted at baseline and endline, after the radio drama had been played on the local radio station and some girls had listened to it in after school girl’s clubs. The focus group discussions contain information on gender norms, perceptions of age-disparate transactional sex and girls and men who engage in it, beliefs about whose responsibility it is to prevent age-disparate transactional sex, and perceptions of and experiences with the radio drama and listening sessions.

Data collection methods

Kiota Women’s Health and Development (KIWOHEDE) researchers conducted all focus group discussions face to face in Kiswahili using a semi-structured topic guide.

Data analysis and preparation

KIWOHEDE researchers transcribed and translated verbatim all focus group discussions into English. During transcription researchers excluded personal details to anonymise the data.

Geographic regions

Kigoma region, Tanzania

Key dates

Data were captured between October and December 2021. All anonymised transcripts were available in English by February 2022.

Quality controls

Amani Girls Organization (AGO) researchers contributed to the construction and ordering of questions, and KIWOHEDE piloted and refined them prior to data collection. The research team met once a week to discuss how well (or not) the topic guide was working, and if needed they made adjustments.  As transcripts were produced LSHTM researchers reviewed them and provided feedback to interviewers on use of probing, and to translators and transcribers on excerpts that were not clear in English. These excerpts were improved in the final version of the transcripts.

Population

In-school adolescent girls aged 13-15 years and their male and female caregivers.

Privacy

All focus group discussions and participants were given a unique ID, which were linked to the audio recordings and transcripts of the focus group discussions to ensure anonymity. Documents that included participant names, including informed consent documents, were saved separately in an encrypted and password protected file, and the hard documents were saved in a locked box behind closed doors. Personal, potentially identifying information was excluded from transcripts, including the day the interview was conducted and the village the participants lived in.

Ethics

Keywords

Transactional sex, age-disparate sex, gender-based violence (GBV), social norms intervention, mass media interventions, edutainment

Language of written material

English

Project information

The project was jointly funded by three funders.

Creators

Associated roles

File description

The collection contains 14 focus-group discussion transcripts, 7 from baseline and 7 from endline. Of these, five are from group discussions with adolescent girls, 1 with female caregivers and 1 with male caregivers.