Youth-Led SRHR: Digital Advocacy, Social Media & Peer Mobilisation

Today's youth navigate highly interconnected social media environments, using multiple social media platforms to engage socially, express identity, and access information. In the United States, nearly all adolescents engage with social media daily, yet most research focuses on single-platform metrics, rarely examining how one platform is interconnected to another, especially while looking at young people's social media use and their health outcomes. This study applies social network analysis to examine platform co-use among U.S. youth aged 15 to 22 years and examines the co-use differences by problematic social media use (PSMU), problematic users' age, and gender. Using cosine similarity scores to quantify platform co-use, we see youth maintain highly interconnected social media environments centered around a small cluster of dominant platforms like Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, and Snapchat. However, patterns of platform co-use differed across problematic social media users' age and gender, with problematic users showing greater platform pair co-use than non-PSMU. These findings advance a network-based understanding of youth's social media co-use, emphasizing that problematic social media use reflects intensified engagement across interconnected platforms rather than distinct platform preferences. Recognizing social media as an ecosystem of co-used platforms can help public health researchers and practitioners to design more integrated, multi-platform interventions that promote youth's mindful ways of engaging in their social media environment.

MSI Nigeria Reproductive Choices implemented a user mobilization strategy to address persistent barriers to family planning (FP) uptake in Nigeria, including stigma, misinformation, and restrictive cultural norms. The strategy empowered former FP clients to become Community-Based Mobilizers (CBMs), using their personal experiences to promote openness and demand for FP services. CBMs were integrated into two key service delivery channels: the Public Sector Strengthening (PSS) channel, which operates through over 3,000 government health facilities where providers deliver FP services in surrounding communities; and the Marie Stopes Ladies (MSL) channel, comprising 347 female providers who offer FP services door-to-door or from informal settings in underserved areas.
CBMs engage communities through interpersonal communication, group discussions, and storytelling, helping to normalize FP and reduce stigma. From 2022 to 2024, MSI Nigeria conducted an average of 673 community-based outreaches daily, contributing 52% of the total 6.7 million couple-years-of-protection (CYP) generated. Community acceptance of FP remained high, and exposure to positive FP narratives increased significantly over the period. This demonstrates the effectiveness of community-led SBCC approaches in shifting norms and improving SRH outcomes. By leveraging lived experience, MSI Nigeria fostered trust, accountability, and equity in FP programming. The model offers a scalable blueprint for global health programs seeking to integrate user-led advocacy into SRH interventions, transforming beneficiaries into agents of change, and promoting sustainable, inclusive reproductive health access.