Validating measurement of social norms for entertainment-education: a five-factor model.

Background: Though 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.

Methods: 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.

Results: 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).

Conclusion: Results indicate good structural validity evidence for measuring social norms in entertainment-education using existing tools.