Percent of adolescents who are confident that they could get their partner(s) to use contraceptives/condoms if they desired

Percent of adolescents who are confident that they could get their partner(s) to use contraceptives/condoms if they desired

Percent of adolescents who are confident that they could get their partner(s) to use contraceptives/condoms if they desired

The confidence or “self-efficacy“ of adolescents in their ability to negotiate contraceptive/condom use with their partner(s)

This indicator is calculated as:

(# of adolescents reporting ability to negotiate contraceptive/condom use with their partners/ Total # of adolescents) x 100

Data Requirement(s):

Responses to survey questions on whether adolescents are “confident,“ “somewhat confident,“ “unsure,“ or “not confident“ that they could convince their partner(s) to use a contraceptive/condom if desired

Evaluators may want to disaggregate by the following age ranges: 10-14, 15-19, and 20-24.

Surveys of program clients and participants or adoles­cents in the program‘s intended population

This indicator measures the level of confidence or “per­ceived self-efficacy“ of adolescents desiring protec­tion to successfully negotiate contraceptive/condom use with their partner(s) if desired. Like the ability/ skill to resist social pressure to have sex, many adolescent and youth sexual and reproductive health (AYSRH) education programs emphasize negotiation skills with regard to contraceptive/condom use. This indicator is particularly important for girls in developing countries, because many have limited negotiation skills or power to convince sexual partners to use contraceptives/ condoms. The indicator can thus measure the effec­tiveness of such skill-based educational programs in increasing adolescents‘ self-efficacy at contraceptive use. Like the previous indicator, this indicator mea­sures perceived self-efficacy, which may or may not correspond to actual behaviors in real-life situations.

Because self-efficacy of contraceptive use is also likely to be context specific, the preferred measurement ap­proach is to solicit responses to various situations that adolescents may find themselves in. For example, an interviewer may ask respondents how confident they are in their ability to successfully negotiate contracep­tive/condom use with:

  • A person they have known for days;
  • A person they have known for months;
  • A person who offers them gifts;
  • A person whom they care about deeply;
  • A person who has paid for their school or train­ing fees and who demands sex; and
  • A person who has power over them, such as a teacher or an employer.

Although one may be confident they could get their partner to use contraceptives/condoms, when put in a situation where their partner is refusing, the reality may be quite different.  Evaluators must be mindful that it is human nature to want to appear to be or believe you are more confident and in-control than what may actually be the case.

empowerment, adolescent, women’s status, attitude, family planning, HIV/AIDS

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