Determinants of multiple sexual partnerships in South Africa

Abstract

The data presented in this paper reinforces the importance of MSP as a risk factor for HIV and outline factors that should strongly be considered in strengthening condom use promotion and of partner reduction programs messaging in South Africa.

Ubudoda Abukhulelwa – Responsible Manhood

“…The men attribute their behaviours to the women being too sexy, to feelings of insecurity they have as men in these relationships, to cultural beliefs associated with causing a woman bad luck if you end relationships with them. It has been reported previously that feelings of insecurity had led men to have more than one sexual partner (Onoya et al, 2015). These findings indicate how crucial it is to further investigate the psychosocial determinants of sexual context.…”

“…MCP is also influenced by alcohol consumption and by never having tested for HIV suggesting that the risky sexual behaviours should not be examined in isolation but researchers should adopt a more critical viewpoint focused at how these behaviours influence each other. Another example is seen in how people who have multiple sexual partners are more likely to use condoms, but they also have a greater number of lifetime sexual partners, and are more likely to have an earlier age of sexual debut (Heeren et al, 2014;Mlambo et al, 2018;Onoya et al, 2015).…”

“…Also, even though multiple sexual partnerships among young males have declined, they still remain relatively high (Human Sciences Research Council, 2018). There are a number of predictors for multiple sexual concurrency among men, which include economic resources that help fuel and maintain this behaviour (Ragnarsson, Townsend, Ekström, Chopra, & Thorson, 2010), suspicion of partner infidelity (Onoya, Zuma, Zungu, Shisana, & Mehlomakhulu, 2015;Ragnarsson, Townsend, Thorson, Chopra, & Ekström, 2009), never having tested for HIV, alcohol misuse (Mlambo, Peltzer, & Chirinda, 2018), and age, showing that younger men have on average more sexual partners (Onoya et al, 2015). The behaviour of multiple sexual partnerships seems to be intertwined with both contemporary and traditional notions of masculinity wherein peer acceptance together with peer encouragements seem to play a big role in maintaining this behaviour (Do & Meekers, 2009).…”

“…Previous studies have also shown that alcohol and drug use have a negative impact on the decision to use condoms (Castilla, Barrio, Belza, & de la Fuente, 1999;Rehm, Shield, Joharchi, & Shuper, 2012). Furthermore, the decision to use condoms is associated with the number of sexual partners a person has whereby men reporting multiple sexual partnerships were likely to have used a condom at last sex (Onoya et al, 2015). Interestingly, having never tested for HIV has been reported to be a predictor of multiple sexual partnerships (Mlambo et al, 2018).…”

“…It is important that these behaviours are not observed in isolation from each other. For instance, people who report having more than one sexual partner are more likely to use condoms compared to those in monogamous relationships, they tend to have their sex debut at a younger age, have a greater number of lifetime sex partners, and are less likely to have been tested for HIV (Heeren et al, 2014;Mlambo et al, 2018;Onoya et al, 2015). There is also evidence showing that inconsistent condom use and multiple sexual partnerships can be attributed to the use of alcohol and other drugs (Asher, Hahn, Couture, Maher, & Page, 2013;Rosengard, Anderson, & Stein, 2004).…”