The Social Norms and Beliefs about Gender Based Violence (GBV) Scale is a 30-item measure with three sub-scales, "Response to Sexual Violence", "Protecting Family Honour" and "Husband's Right to Use Violence", within two domains of injunctive social norms and personal beliefs. This measure permits assessment of harmful social norms and personal beliefs associated with GBV in low-resource and humanitarian settings.
Geographies Tested: Somalia,Sudan
Populations Included: Female, Male
Age Range: Adolescents, Adults
Injunctive Social Norms
How many of the people whose opinion matters most to you:
Response to Sexual Violence
1. Expect a husband to abandon his wife if she reports that she has been raped.
2. Expect the family to ignore/reject a daughter if she reports that she has been raped.
3. Accept sexual violence against women and girls as a normal part of life.
4. Blame women/girls when they are raped.
5. Think that a man should have the right to demand sex from a woman or girl even if he is not married to her.
Protecting Family Honor
6. Expect women/girls to not report rape to protect the family dignity.
7. Expect that a woman/girl's reputation will be damaged if she reports sexual violence to the authorities or elders.
8. Fear stigma if they were to report sexual violence.
9. Expect sexual violence to be handled within the family and not reported to authorities.
10. Expect a husband or father to retaliate against the alleged perpetrators.
11. Expect women and girls to only report sexual violence if they have serious physical injuries.
Husband's Right to Use Violence
12. Think that when a man beats his wife, he is showing his love for her.
13. Think that a man has the right to beat/punish his wife.
14. Think it is okay for a husband to beat his wife to discipline her.
15. Expect a husband to force his wife to have sex when she does not want to.
Response Options:
None of them - 1
A few of them - 2
About half of them - 3
Most of them - 4
All of the - 5
Personal Beliefs
We would like to know if you think any of the following statements are wrong and should be changed in your community. We also would like to understand how ready or willing you are to take action by speaking out on the issues you think are wrong:
Response to Sexual Violence
16. Husbands should abandon/reject/divorce their wife if she reports that she has been raped.
17. A man should have the right to demand sex from a woman or girl even if he is not married to her.
18. A woman/girl would be stigmatized if she were to report sexual violence.
19. A woman/girl should be blamed when she has been raped.
20. Sexual violence against women and girls should be accepted as a normal part of life.
21. Families should ignore/reject a daughter if she reports that she has been raped.
Husband's Right to Use Violence
22.It is okay for a husband to beat his wife to discipline her.
23. When a man beats his wife, he is showing his love for her.
24. A man has the right to beat/punish his wife.
25. A husband should force his wife to have sex when she does not want to.
Protecting Family Honor
26. Women/girls should not report rape to protect the family dignity.
27. A woman/girl's reputation will be damaged if she reports sexual violence to the authorities.
28. Sexual violence should be handled within the family and not reported to authorities.
29. A husband or father should retaliate against the alleged perpetrators.
30. Women and girls should only report sexual violence if they have serious physical injuries.
Response Options:
Agree with this statement - 1
I am not sure if I agree or disagree with this statement - 2
I disagree with the statement but am not ready to tell others - 3
I disagree with the statement and I am telling others that this is wrong - 4
Scores for each of the sub-scales are computed by taking the average of the items within the sub-scales. The injunctive social norms domain sub-scales scores range from 1 to 5, with higher scores reflecting more negative responses to GBV. Personal beliefs sub-scales range from 1 to 4, with higher scores reflecting a more positive response to survivors of GBV.
Perrin, N., Marsh, M., Clough, A., Desgroppes, A., Phanuel, C. Y., Abdi, A., ... & Read-Hamilton, S. (2019). Social norms and beliefs about gender based violence scale: A measure for use with gender based violence prevention programs in low-resource and humanitarian settings. Conflict and Health, 13(1), 6.
Psychometric Score
Ease of Use Score
Qualitative Research
Existing Literature/Theoretical Framework
Field Expert Input
Cognitive Interviews / Pilot Testing
Internal
Test-retest
Interrater
Content
Face
Criterion (gold-standard)
Construct
Readability
Scoring Clarity
Length
to get the latest updates on new measures and guidance for survey researchers