Cultural Models in Mind: How Understanding Patterns of Thinking Can Lead to More Effective Communication to Reduce Violence Against Children in Haiti

Theoretical Background and research questions/hypothesis:  Violence against children stands out as a major threat to long-term health and stability in Haiti. A staggering number of children face combinations of sexual, physical, and emotional violence before the age of 18. Despite the clear crisis, numerous interventions from international NGOs and aid organizations have not made significant measurable progress in mitigating or preventing a child's exposure to violence, exploitation, abandonment, or risk.  AIR contends that one reason interventions have not made progress is because of the lack of research looking at implicit cultural patterns of thinking underlying the way local Haitians reason about children. Psychological anthropologists argue that all people understand and reason about the world through shared patterns of thinking (cultural models) about the very basic features that make up the world and how it works and that these cultural models can be leveraged for more effective communication.  As such, we asked the following research question: What are the shared implicit cultural patterns of thinking in Haiti that structure understandings, beliefs, and actions regarding the rights, development, and protection of a child? We hypothesize that mapping these cultural models will inform behavior change communication interventions that have a measurable impact precisely because they fit with local ways of understanding and reasoning.

Methods and Results (informing the conceptual analysis): AIR has conducted 40 in-depth one-on-one interviews lasting approximately 90-120 minutes across nine communities in Haiti. These interviews were designed to elicit talk on the wide range of fundamental topics that underlie the target issue – topics such as how children are defined, how child development works, what role children play in families, how gender norms and expectations influence children’s lives, how children are protected or made vulnerable, and what constitutes violence in people’s minds.  The interviews were conducted in Haitian Creole by a team of specially-trained anthropology graduate students at the State University of Haiti. These students have undergone intensive capacity building workshops with AIR staff in all phases of research and are currently co-analyzing the data to map the cultural models along with more experienced AIR staff.

Conclusions:  By the end of June, 2017, we will have finalized the mapping of cultural models, and in July 2017 we will host a co-interpretation workshop with local Haitian and international stakeholders to strategize how to best use the research to inform pilot communications interventions over the coming two years. In this NCHCMM talk, I will present an overview of our research design and practices and details from the mapping of cultural models, along with the implications for how the cultural models lead to message reframing.

Implications for research and/or practice: Scientists and practitioners in a variety of fields have come to understand that these implicit, cultural patterns must be understood to better communicate about a wide variety of health issues. This talk will highlight the benefits of including this deep cultural research to inform health communications and outreach in order to more effectively reach our audiences and achieve improved health outcomes.