Promoting self-esteem, sense of belonging and self-efficacy among adolescent girls in rural India through Interactive Voice Response

• In Event: Highlighted Session: Leveraging ICT for student empowerment

Proposal

Rural, adolescent girls have limited access to technology in the global south, which has been amplified by the COVID-19 pandemic. This study investigates the impact of distributing female role model storylines on participants’ self-esteem, self-efficacy, and sense of belonging. Our approach navigates gendered access to technology in an underrepresented community of adolescent girls in India by delivering pre-recorded learning content through an Interactive Voice Response System (IVRS). This system incorporates the appropriate use of technology that leverages existing devices and is delivered through low connectivity solutions. Complementary to the impact on psychological constructs, we are interested in the IVRS design features that facilitate effective implementation.

Conceptual Framework

Our conceptual frameworks integrate role models theory and storytelling with theories associated with self-esteem, self-efficacy, and a sense of belonging. Role models are key references for adolescents because they provide a window to the future, model positive behavior, and display adaptive techniques to which the adolescent can aspire (Kemper, 1968). When lessons are communicated through stories that students identify with, and through meaningful and rich language that is within the vocabulary of the students and relevant to them, learning becomes more attainable for them (Aura, Hassan & Hamari, 2021).
Self-esteem refers to an individual's subjective evaluation of his or her worth as a person (MacDonald & Leary, 2012). It has been found that adolescents from minority communities have distinct social concerns linked with self-esteem that become more salient throughout adolescence and experiences of discrimination (Umaña-Taylor & Updegraff, 2007). Self-efficacy is defined as people’s judgment of their capabilities to organize and successfully complete a task (Bandura, 1988) and has been correlated with academic achievement (Gore, 2006; Zajacova et al., 2005). For education, a sense of belonging has been defined as the extent to which a student feels personally accepted, included, and supported by peers or adults in school (Galliher et al., 2004).

Inquiry

Content Design. This project incorporated a low resource technology called the Interactive Voice Response System (IVRS) which is an automated telephony system used to transmit pre-recorded or user-generated audio that operates on a basic click-button phone. The system is used to disseminate inspirational content to the girls as well as allow participants to submit responses to prompts and assessments through their own devices. The intervention includes twelve audio storylines about Indian women role models with shared identities, recorded in Hindi in formats of 3-4 minutes episodes.
The ‘theatre of the mind’ approach was employed to use the collected ability, styles, tools, and techniques to conjure vivid imagery in the girls’ minds through sound alone. Through interviews and multiple testing rounds with participants, we attempt to understand if making use of voice intonations and sound effects could make the stories more engaging, so they come alive for the girls.
The role model stories were created by listing real life females from similar religious affiliations, geography, socio-economic backgrounds, and diverse professions informed by the stakeholders (Appendix B). This was followed by writing and translating a brief version of their stories highlighting points of affirmation on aspects of self-esteem, self-efficacy, and sense of belonging. For instance, the story on Savitribai Phule, who was the first female teacher of India, documents her struggle and grit to teach marginalized children in the 1850s, when it was impermissible by the society.
Sampling. Approximately 150 girls (Mage=12.5 years) were recruited through collaboration with SwaTaleem, a grassroots organization that has been working in the Mewat district of Haryana, located in the north of India, with a reported female literacy rate of 32% (Taufeek & Hashmi, 2017). This district has special schools called the Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalayas (KGBVs), which are established by the Indian government in 2004 with the vision of providing access to quality education to girls belonging to underprivileged communities (i.e., from India’s scheduled castes and tribes).
Instrumentation. This study incorporated a survey instrument for quantitative data capture that was developed after evaluating cross-cultural validity of existing scales on self-esteem, sense of belonging, and self-efficacy. Additional considerations for instrumentation included adaptation from existing scales that incorporated simple language and had been employed in diverse cultural contexts through processes of language translation. Since the measurements are administered by IVRS, short assessments with no more than 10 items were used. For continuity, a consistent Likert scale range was kept throughout the assessment. Additionally, negatively coded items were removed to reduce deficit framing of the question items (Bilingual survey: Appendix C).
Data collection. Participants received one role model episode per week over a three-month period. Survey data associated with the study constructs of self-esteem, efficacy, and sense of belonging was collected at baseline and then at three equal intervals, 4 weeks apart (Appendix A). In addition to survey data, qualitative data was captured through the IVR system through prompts asking the participants to reflect on the storylines and the connection to their personal lives. IRB protocol was obtained prior to implementation and maintained throughout the study.

Anticipated Findings
This study attempts to understand the impact of a low-resource, culturally appropriate interactive audio intervention for improving self-esteem, efficacy, and sense of belonging among adolescent girls in rural India. Additionally, we are interested in understanding the specific design elements that support the IVRS approach within this context.
Data collection will take place from August through November of 2022. This paper presents preliminary findings from the intervention along with our research question framing. Data will be analyzed by comparing the latent mean differences between the groups approach to determine the outcomes on the sense of belonging, self-efficacy, and self-esteem.

Conclusion
This study fits squarely within the 2023 theme of “Improving education for a more equitable world”, and specifically as related to the social justice and inclusion sub-theme. By developing a low resource digital solution targeting underrepresented girls in rural India, we aim to address the issue of gendered access to technology and improve access to quality content of sensitive topics to positively impact the wellbeing of young girls.

Authors

• Shafagh Hadinezhad, University of Illinois Urbana-Champ

• Ananya Tiwari, University of Illinois At Urbana-Champaign