Abstract

Background: In Ethiopia, short stature and thinness among adolescent girls continue to be a severe public health problem, inadequate diet intake being the typical cause. Eating has a strong relationship with a given society's culture and beliefs. In low and middle-income countries, these barriers have been found to have a very serious negative influence when it comes to adolescent girls, specifically. In Ethiopia, the role of these contextual factors in adolescent girls' eating has not been well investigated. Therefore, this qualitative study was conducted to understand the perception of adolescent girls, boys and mothers' on adolescent girls’ and socio-cultural and gender norm barriers of their eating.

Methods: A phenomenological qualitative study was employed. A focus group discussion of adolescent girls and an in-depth interview of mothers and adolescent boys were conducted. A total of six focus group discussions with forty-three adolescent girls and an in-depth interview of twelve adolescent males and ten mothers were performed. The adolescent girls and boys were aged 15 to 19, attending grades 9-12. The mothers were those having girls of age 15-19 years. All were rural residents. The participants were selected using a purposive sampling method. Thematic analysis was employed to identify the predominant themes surrounding the problem. Open code software was used for the data analysis.

Results: The quantity and quality of food and frequency of meals that girls received were low. It was perceived even very low when compared with the boys. The barriers to girls eating were related to the perception of the girls and the families and sociocultural and gender norm barriers.  The specific barriers identified were the perception that girls' body food requirement is lower than boys, girls resist hunger, girls eating improvement has nothing to do with their performance in life, the primary job of girls is caring for males, preparing food and feeding the boys first is the sign of respect for males, fasting is more important for girls, having a strong male who gives protection for the family and fear of the disappearance of the male if he do not get attention, unlike girls.

Conclusion: Adolescent girls’ eating is lower than boys’ eating. This is due to the culture and perceptions towards girls eating. Education of the community about the food requirements of girls, the consequences of their inadequate feeding, and the misconception existing in the community about girls' food requirements is crucial. There should be policies and strategies to help full for empowering women and balancing gender inequalities.

Keywords: Qualitative study; eating barriers; gender norm barriers, eating perception; adolescent girls; Ethiopia