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BackgroundMethodsResultsConclusionThough the measurement of social norms is important for evaluating entertainment-education interventions, there is a dearth of validity evidence for measuring tools to assess different social norm constructs.Identical survey items were used to assess family planning norms among married Zambian women in 2019 and 2022 following an entertainment-education radio program intervention. Confirmatory Factor Analysis was used for confirmation of the internal structure of several subscales used to measure social norms found in a previous study.There were no statistically significant demographic differences between participant groups at T1 and T2. CFA supported a five-factor model at T2 comprising descriptive norms (4 items), outcome expectations (3 items), and 3 different constructs capturing injunctive norms (3 items each).Results indicate good structural validity evidence for measuring social norms in entertainment-education using existing tools. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While there has been a marked increase in measurement and scholarship surrounding social norms in recent years, there is little evidence related to social norms measurement in the context of health campaigns utilizing entertainment-education. Entertainment-education goals and objectives have shifted over time to include social norms and an update is needed to merge contemporary practice with the most recent measures from the literature. The aim of the present study was to analyze commonly used quantitative measures and their properties for social norms and entertainment-education, specifically on the topic of family planning, to bolster ongoing research and practice efforts by validating items for social norms measurement in entertainment-education programs. The study used data from a survey conducted with 438 married women aged 19–34 in the Central Province of Zambia in 2019 who were exposed to the entertainment-education initiative Kwishilya (Over the Horizon), a Bemba-language, 156-episode radio program designed to shift social norms on family planning. Multiple items were included to measure descriptive norms, injunctive norms, and outcome expectations. Exploratory factor analysis and estimates of scale reliability were conducted to understand the properties and structure of the social norms items. Results showed a five-factor solution best fit the data, which accounted for 45.7% of the variance, exhibited fair reliability, and loaded largely as expected. This study provides a useful tool for practitioners and scholars to use globally to measure important social norms constructs in entertainment-education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]