'It isn't because they don't love their children', it's social influence: Social Norms Shaping Young Fathers' Caregiving in Uganda A qualitative diagnosis of norms influencing young fathers' engagement in early childhood care, learning and play

Aloysious Nnyombi^1,2,3*Ramadhan Bob Kirunda²Anslem Wandega²Moses Komagum²Deogratias Yiga²Kathryn M Barker⁴Rebecka Lundgren⁴

• ¹Makerere University, Kampala, Uganda
• ²Impact and Innovations Development Centre, Kampala, Uganda
• ³University of Vienna, Vienna, Vienna, Austria
• ⁴Center on Gender Equity and Health, School of Medicine, University of California, San Diego, La Jolla, California, United States

This study investigates the influence of social norms on male caregiving in Uganda and considers the implications for tailoring and scaling the REAL Fathers mentoring program across six regions. By identifying key norms and reference groups, the findings inform strategies to enhance father engagement in early childhood development within culturally and socially relevant frameworks. This study employed an exploratory Participatory Learning and Action (PLA) approach, integrating in-depth interviews, focus group discussions, and community validation workshops to identify and prioritize social and gender norms across the study regions. This paper explores how social norms in Uganda shape male caregiving, highlighting implications for programme design and implementation. We found that norms influence male engagement in care giving directly, by setting expectations for how men should behave with their wives and children. Norms also have a strong indirect influence on male caregiving through social expectations about what is appropriate for men and women related to power, decision-making and gender roles. Data shows that the norms and the reference groups that sustain them are consistent across cultural regions and the social sanctions that enforce the norms are largely intangible. We also found some exceptions to the norms. For norm shifting interventions to be effective, practitioners should be intentional in engaging reference groups and take advantage of exceptions to norms as leverage points for behaviour change. Also, the different norm shifting strategies adopted should be able to address the complexity and interconnectedness of the norms.