Abstract:

Attitudes towards gender roles are the first barrier to achieving the reduction of this type of intolerance, especially among adolescents who are at a developmental stage that is very susceptible to the assimilation of innappropiate behaviors and to have mistaken beliefs in this regard.

Health communication emerges as a tool to take into consideration among the different ways of social intervention available in this field.

This research assessed the sexist attitudes and beliefs of 866 adolescent of whom 277 participated in an activity based on the composition of short stories related to gender violence. Participants came from three different schools of Ambato, city in the centre of Ecuador.

The results showed a statistically significant reduction in the scores of most items and factors of the evaluation questionnaire from those who participated in the activity in comparison with the group that did not participate.

It is concluded that the literacy strategy used is effective and that this contributes to the development of the education regarding gender topics.

Keywords:

Gender violence, adolescents, health communication, writing, short stories, Ecuador.