Brief: Profiles of Younger Adolescents in Urban Kinshasa

Growing Up GREAT! aims to foster gender awareness and equity among very young adolescents (VYAs), their parents, teachers/providers, and the larger community to support young girls and boys better transition from early adolescence and puberty to more gender-equitable sexual relationships and use of contraception later in the life course.  In urban Kinshasa, GUG! reaches in-school and out of school VYAs and the adults in their lives.

 Growing Up GREAT! is being evaluated as part of the Global Early Adolescent Study (GEAS), which explores the relationship between evolving gender norms and a range of key health outcomes across the adolescent period – including reproductive health and gender-based violence – as well as factors at individual, family, community and societal levels.

 Based on the GEAS baseline findings, this brief provides comparative profiles of in-school and out-of-school girls and boys age 10-14, highlighting similarities and differences not only in the young people themselves but also in the environments in which they live.