Why, how and in what circumstances do school-based gender-based violence interventions work in LMICs? A realist review

Mostefai, Miriame N., Filho, Sidnei R., Bonell, Chris, Young, Honor ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-0664-4002, Rizzo, Andrew and Melendez-Torres, G.J. 2025. Why, how and in what circumstances do school-based gender-based violence interventions work in LMICs? A realist review. Child Abuse & Neglect 169 (Part 1) , 107629. 10.1016/j.chiabu.2025.107629 Item availability restricted.

	PDF - Accepted Post-Print Version Restricted to Repository staff only until 16 August 2027 due to copyright restrictions. Available under License Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial No Derivatives. Download (380kB)
	PDF - Supplemental Material Restricted to Repository staff only until 16 August 2027 due to copyright restrictions. Available under License Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial No Derivatives. Download (184kB)
	PDF - Supplemental Material Restricted to Repository staff only until 16 August 2027 due to copyright restrictions. Available under License Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial No Derivatives. Download (112kB)
	PDF - Supplemental Material Restricted to Repository staff only until 16 August 2027 due to copyright restrictions. Available under License Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial No Derivatives. Download (730kB)
	PDF - Supplemental Material Restricted to Repository staff only until 16 August 2027 due to copyright restrictions. Available under License Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial No Derivatives. Download (1MB)
	PDF - Supplemental Material Restricted to Repository staff only until 16 August 2027 due to copyright restrictions. Available under License Creative Commons Attribution Non-commercial No Derivatives. Download (164kB)

Abstract

Background Gender-based violence (GBV), a human rights violation, disproportionately affects women and girls in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). School settings are important platforms for GBV prevention interventions. Objective This paper employs realist synthesis to understand the mechanisms underlying how and why school-based interventions in LMICs generate GBV-related outcomes. Methods Database searches yielded 6235 papers – 31 were included, describing 28 different interventions, mostly multilevel and mixed-sex interventions. Grounded theory was used to analyse important contexts, mechanisms, outcomes, and to create explanatory configurations. Results The predominant contexts are fixed patriarchal sociocultural norms condoning violence, resource availability, and organisational partnerships. Mechanisms, the underpinning forces of the interventions that lead to outcomes, are interdependent and commonly involve knowledgeable facilitators, safe spaces, and enhancing individuals' “power to” and “power within”. Changes in GBV knowledge and attitudes are the most frequently reported outcomes. Whilst knowledgeable facilitators are the main vehicle to triggering other enabling mechanisms, the context in terms of sociocultural norms, resource availability, and organisational support needs to be assessed for its capacity to trigger other mechanisms that enable intervention goals. The facilitator mechanism can then trigger individual-level “power to” or “power within” mechanisms; however, these alone are insufficient to improve outcomes. Conclusions Multilevel, mixed-sex interventions with increased access to and distribution of resources are important for improving GBV outcomes, particularly those with family and community involvement.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Schools > Social Sciences (Includes Criminology and Education) Research Institutes & Centres > Centre For Development and Evaluation of Complex Interventions for Public Health Improvement (DECIPHer)
Publisher:	Elsevier
ISSN:	0145-2134
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	3 September 2025
Date of Acceptance:	31 July 2025
Last Modified:	03 Sep 2025 09:45
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/180603

Actions (repository staff only)

Edit Item