Neural and computational correlates of strategic aborting and long-run policy optimization in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex.

Adolescence is a critical stage for physical, emotional, and social development, particularly in relation to sexual and reproductive health. In the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), an estimated 25 million of the country's more than 110 million inhabitants are between the ages of 10 and 19. For many, this pivotal period unfolds in environments that expose them to considerable risks, with potentially lasting consequences for their long-term reproductive, but also socio-economic and psychological trajectories. Available research on gender-based violence (GBV) in the country suggests that nearly a quarter (22%) of women have experienced at least one instance of sexual violence before the age of 18. The Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) 2023–2024 estimates that one in five girls (20%) aged 15–19 has already been pregnant, raising strong concerns given that adolescent pregnancy carries elevated health risks and is associated with long-term socioeconomic disadvantage. Education can play a protective role and is crucial to poverty alleviation by strengthening adolescent girls’ autonomy and agency in making informed decisions about their lives, health, and futures. It is also instrumental to empowering adolescents and fostering gender equality by shaping gender norms, expectations, and life trajectories. But while primary education enrolment and completion rates (86% for boys and 79% for girls) have increased in the DRC following the implementation of free education policies in 2019, a severe drop-off persists at the secondary level, along with an increase in the gender gap. UNESCO country estimates show gross enrolment in high schools to be 70% for boys (with a 64% completion rate) but only 44% for girls (with a 51% completion rate). Factors limiting adolescent and particularly girls’ access to secondary education in sub-Saharan Africa, including unequal domestic responsibilities, safety concerns, inadequate access to menstrual hygiene supplies and separated bathrooms, early marriage and childbearing, have been well-researched. Underlying economic concerns linked to the tuition, uniforms and other schooling costs almost systematically compound those issues and secondary education often represents significant opportunity costs and financial sacrifices for families. The limited data available for the DRC suggest that educational settings themselves might be a locus of increased risk of gender-based and sexual violence for youth and adolescents. Very few studies have been conducted to estimate the extent of school-based gender-based violence in the country, but in the DHS 2013–2014, nearly one in ten women (9.6%) reported physical or sexual violence perpetrated by a teacher. This figure could be seriously underreported, as a study conducted by UNICEF in 2014 indicated that about 46% of Congolese schoolgirls had been victims of sexual harassment, abuse and violence committed by their teachers or other school personnel. A more detailed study conducted in neighbouring Republic of the Congo also suggested that 30–40% of high school students had been victims of physical, economic or sexual violence and 73% had faced verbal or psychological violence. Earlier research conducted in Ghana, Kenya, and Mozambique also highlighted the prevalence of physical punishment in educational settings, as well as sexual violence perpetrated by peers and teachers.