Socioeconomic disadvantage and unsafe sexual behaviors among young women and men in South Africa
By K. Hallman. 2004
233 citations recorded by the source corpus.
Recent evidence suggests that the burden of new HIV infections in developing countries is concentrated among young people and females. Even with knowledge of how to protect oneself from infection, such information may not always be usable in daily situations of economic and social disadvantage that characterize the lives of many young people and women in poor countries. Using household survey data collected in 2001, this study investigates how relative socioeconomic status influences the sexual behaviors of young women and men aged 14–24 years in KwaZulu-Natal Province, South Africa—an environment characterized by high HIV prevalence and high rates of poverty and inequality. Relative economic disadvantage is found to significantly increase the likelihood of a variety of unsafe sexual behaviors and experiences. Low socioeconomic status not only increases female odds of exchanging sex for money or goods, it also raises female chances of experiencing coerced sex, and male and female odds of having multiple sexual partners in the year before the survey; it lowers female chances of secondary abstinence in the year before the survey, female and male age at sexual debut, condom use at last sex, and communication with most recent sexual partner about sensitive topics. Low socioeconomic status has more consistent negative effects on female than on male sexual behaviors; it also raises female risk of early pregnancy. Controlling for wealth and other factors, orphanhood confers added risk for unsafe sexual behaviors. Poorer young people, especially females, also have access to significantly fewer media sources for family planning information. Without sufficient attention in the design and placement of HIV prevention programs to the economic and social conditions in which individuals live, the potential effectiveness of the global response to HIV/AIDS is sacrificed.
Subfields: Economics and Econometrics, General Health Professions, Safety Research
View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/2c4dae8d8f5fb795f7f8742907d892a42f879e5c
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Citations in the corpus
- Being "real" about youth entrepreneurship in Eastern and Southern Africa: implications for adults, institutions and sector structures (2005, unknown): “This “problem-centred” approach often places the blame on young people for their “risky behaviours” without considering the broader social forces that limit their alternatives while increasing the pressures they must cope with (Hallman, 2004).”
- Agriculture for Development in Sub-Saharan Africa (2007, background): “By offering few income-earning opportunities, especially to destitute women who sometimes then engage in transactional sex to feed themselves and their children, rural poverty contributes to as well as is exacerbated by HIV/AIDS (Bryceson and Fonseca, 2005, Hallman, 2004).”