Condoms are not contraceptives……or are they? Understanding youth culture in behaviour change campaigns  

  • Sex & Health
  • 26 Sep 2024

 “I have never used contraceptives, because I desire to have kids in future. But I can use condoms. I don’t want to have unwanted pregnancies, children are not a mistake, so I want to plan.” 

Words matter for young people. For instance, a young Kenyan (like the one quoted above) will say “I don’t use contraceptives” and, in the next breath, talk about their preferred type of condom.  Why is that? They use the word ‘Protection’ to mean easy-to-access traditional methods such as rhythm days, withdrawal etc, condoms or P2 emergency pills. 

‘Contraception’ on the other hand refers to long-acting methods like daily pills, an implant, an injectable or contraceptive coil that often require a clinic visit.  

For young Kenyans, using ‘protection’ allows you to protect yourself from STIs, or an unintended pregnancy – but nothing about it is permanent. ‘Protection’ gives you the flexibility to have kids straight away if you meet the right person, but it doesn’t change anything about you – your identity or your self-narrative. Crucially: you can use ‘protection’ and still think of yourself as a virgin – and that’s really important. 

Using ‘contraception’ is viewed as a much more permanent change. It’s associated with adulthood – with people who’re actively planning a family. (Myths also remain that using one now might prevent you from having a child later.) To use ‘contraception’ therefore requires a much bigger decision, and more importantly a big identity shift. Our key takeaway is that if you want to know what’s really going on for young people, and co-create programmes for behaviour change with them, remember that very few terms have a universal meaning, understand their language and that’ll go a long way in breaking down their barriers. 

With over 12 years of running research-led programs for and with young people, we’ve learned that it takes more than the traditional formative research methods to understand what’s important to them and ultimately break down barriers in their lives. Our unique GroundTruth study utilizes both traditional and innovative Human Centred Design tools to gain deep, nuanced understanding of our target audience, their knowledge, beliefs, norms and behaviours concerning a particular topic. Meaningful conversations underpin the success of our research methods and help us gain the insights necessary to develop effective and audience-friendly behaviour change strategies. It’s time to shelve the basic Q & As and yes/No/somewhat tactics and engage in deep conversations with young people to understand them better. 

One of the light bulb moments we had when we started engaging young people is that they already hold the solutions to overcoming the barriers they face, and the way to affect real change for them is to always defer to their expertise.  There are young people who are finding ways to break down the internal, social or economic barriers in their lives, by swerving off the path in front of them and defying the trends for their demographics. We call them Shujaaz (heroes) or in development speak, ‘Positive deviants’ and when you give them a chance to share their stories, other young people see relatable, ordinary next-door heroes and believe they can do it, and they go for it, and that’s how real change happens. If you are working with young people, listen to them from day one, they know what they want. 

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