Community norms, individual attitudes and longitudinal changes in contraceptive agency among young women in Burkina Faso

Most research exploring the factors influencing women’s decision-making power has focused on individual characteristics, particularly education, employment, or, more broadly, women’s socioeconomic status. However, some contradictory findings suggest that individual characteristics alone are insufficient to fully explain disparities in women’s empowerment. This study leverages two waves of the longitudinal Performance Monitoring for Action (PMA) panel survey (2019–2021, N = 2,119 young women followed in 163 enumeration areas) to examine the dynamics of contraceptive agency among young women in Burkina Faso. Specifically, it analyzes how contextual factors, particularly gender and fertility-related norms, are associated with contraceptive agency within a multilevel framework. Contraceptive agency comprises two key dimensions: motivation-the ability to define reproductive goals-and self-efficacy-the capacity to act upon and achieve those goals. The explanatory models used in this study revealed a limited direct association of community norms and perceptions, while individual attitudes were more consistently associated with favorable trajectories in contraceptive agency dynamics. An exception was observed: favorable trajectories in the contraceptive motivation subdimension were associated with norms related to fertility perceptions. Some subgroup estimates were imprecise. Programs and initiatives aimed at strengthening young women’s reproductive autonomy in Burkina Faso should implement strategies that simultaneously address norm shifts—particularly those that promote high fertility—while also fostering positive reproductive health attitudes, especially among unmarried young women.