Public health programming to accommodate the heterogeneity of youth and the complexity of behavior change

The word “youth” masks enormous heterogeneity in the population. Public health practitioners have used several approaches to disaggregate and segment the youth population, tailoring messages to targeted audiences. But, messaging may not touch significant aspects of youth’s heterogeneity. The idea of creating a “message” remains tied to the idea of the collective rather than personal circumstances, and, alone, is not sufficient to address the complexities of behavior change. Beyond messaging, many have argued for narratives as vehicles for delivering nuanced information, yet these narratives are often used to educate and inform, rather than spur reflection. Alternatively, we argue that narratives used in behavior change interventions for adolescent and youth sexual and reproductive health should be developed as “inkblots”—intended to pull information from individuals to stimulate private and social reflection rather than push messages to them. We use the University Leadership for Change program in Niger to demonstrate how inkblot narratives place the responsibility for tailoring stories and messages into the hands of individuals themselves, resulting in reflection, dialog, and action with the potential to spur positive changes in sexual and reproductive health behaviors.

Abstract licence: CC BY

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