Effectiveness of Theater-Based Approach for Gender Equity Education of Adolescent School Students

Introduction: Gender equity in health requires that men and women be treated equally where needs are common and differences be addressed equitably. Adolescence is the period where gender norms and expectations increase gender inequality which impacts adolescent’s health considerably. Interventions with adolescents have long term effects and using theater to change the attitudes and/behaviors of adolescents in areas of gender equity and violence prevention is promising. Objectives: (1) Utilize three Theater-based techniques to conduct Gender equity group education of adolescent school students. (2) To compare pre and post-intervention gender equitable attitudes through Gender Equitable Measurement (GEM) scores of participants. (3) To assess participants satisfaction with the education intervention. Design: Quasi-experimental pre–post-intervention study. Setting: A government middle and high school. Method: Baseline socio-demographic information and baseline Gender Equitable Measurement (GEM) score was assessed. A validated module on Gender Equity was converted into script, rehearsed and enacted on scheduled days. Interprofessional team comprised of professionals from medicine, psychology, education and police. Three theater-based techniques: Role Play, Transitional and Forum Theater were used for group education. The intervention comprised 8 weekly sessions conducted for each group of 30 students; 32 group level sessions over three months. Post-intervention, data collection was done using the same self-reported measures used at baseline. Results: All 109 participants completed both baseline and post-intervention assessments. Median age of participants was 13 years. 102 (93.6%) participants completed all eight sessions and all participants attended at least six sessions. Mean overall GEM score increased significantly from 21.40 ± 4.95 at baseline to 24.40 ± 4.43 post-intervention ( P = 0.017), with a large effect size (Cohen’s d z = 0.97). Improvements were observed among both boys and girls. Post-intervention, 85.1% of boys and 96.8% of girls had high gender equity scores, compared with 21.3% and 24.2%, respectively, at baseline. Overall, 92.66% of participants were extremely satisfied with intervention. In Multivariable linear regression analysis after adjustment for age, gender, maternal occupation, and attendance, a higher baseline GEM score was associated with a smaller improvement in GEM score (adjusted B = −0.41; 95% CI: −0.49 to −0.32; P < 0.001). Conclusions: Theater-based approach for Gender equity education in adolescent school students significantly improved their gender equitable attitude. Schools can provide an effective setting for utilizing theater-based techniques for gender equity and violence prevention education of adolescents.