Youth voices from an informal settlement of Nairobi, Kenya: Engaging adolescent perspectives on violence to inform prevention

摘要

We examined the experiences of violence and self-reported behaviouraland community changes as a result of participation in a sexual assaultprevention intervention in an informal settlement in Nairobi, Kenya. Weconducted longitudinal qualitative in-depth interviews with 20adolescent girls and 11 adolescent boys at baseline, 12, and 24 months.Analysis was thematic with two investigators coding and reachingconsensus about the themes. Participants’ ages ranged from 10 to 13 atbaseline; girls’ mean age was 11.9, boys’ mean age was 11.6.Participants reported experiencing high levels of violence at all stagesof the study. Most reported feeling more empowered to protectthemselves and others from sexual assault because of the intervention.While participants had mixed responses about change in sexual assaultincidence, most perceived an improvement in inter-gender relationshipsafter the intervention. Participants at midline and endline citedacquaintances and friends as potential perpetrators of sexual violencemore often than at baseline and were more open to reporting violentincidents. The very young adolescents in this setting perceived that thissexual assault prevention intervention led to improvements in genderrelations, adolescent girls’ empowerment and, recognition of harmfulrape myths.