The Protection Paradox: An Ecological Analysis of Functional Agency and Social Protection among Adolescent Girls with Mobility Impairments in Zambia

Background: This study redefines the "Protection Paradox" in Zambia as a systemic friction between Western rights-based autonomy and the African moral framework of Ubuntu, where the absence of communal structural security necessitates defensive domestic confinement. Beyond the idealization of kinship, the research analyzes how the "Marriageability Trap" and Lobola norms intersect with heightened fears of sexual violence and HIV infection, forcing caregivers into restrictive supervision to safeguard a girl's social virtue.

Methods: This study employed a qualitative scoping review design guided by the PRISMA-ScR framework; the review prioritizes the Washington Group Short Set to ensure functional measurements reflect individual capacity rather than medicalized impairment. The methodology specifically filters for evidence that mitigates proxy-reporting bias, correcting the common distortion where caregiver perceptions systematically underestimate the latent agency of adolescent girls.

Results: Findings reveal a stark geographic divide where 61.7% of urban households utilize Social Cash Transfers for disability costs compared to only 38.3% in rural areas, highlighting a pervasive 60% urban bias in existing research. Additionally, the review identifies an "impact fade-out" where material consumption gains vanish after three years, yet persistent benefits in health and food security continue to act as vital ecological stabilizers.

Conclusion: The study concludes that agency must be re-envisioned as a "collective kinship accomplishment" that requires the permanent integration of technical infrastructure, such as UNICEF’s WinS-compliant WASH geometries, into the school-home mesosystem. Transitioning from defensive care to active justice necessitates an obligation-based support model where the community ensures the structural security required for an adolescent girl's public participation.

Limitations: A primary limitation is the geographic skew of the evidence base, which leaves the unique environmental frictions of rural provinces under-theorized due to the concentration of research in urban centers. Furthermore, the continued reliance on proxy-respondent data in broader Zambian scholarship risks perpetuating an underestimate of functional capacity driven by parental protective anxieties.