“I feel like it is asking if he is a stalker … but I also feel like it is asking if he cares”: exploring young South African women and men’s perceptions of the Sexual Relationship Power Scale

Abstract

Background Gender inequity and the subsequent health impacts disproportionately affect communities in the Global South. However, most gender equity measures, such as Pulerwitz’ (2000) Sexual Relationship Power Scale (SRPS), are developed and validated in the Global North and then applied in Global South settings without investigation of context applicability or validity. This study examines the SRPS’ validity evidence, comprehensiveness, and contemporary relevance for young South African women and men. Methods Between 2019 and 2021, 38 cognitive interviews (CIs) were conducted among previous participants of a South African youth cohort study ‘AYAZAZI’ (2015–2017) to explore youth’s perceptions of the SRPS. The SRPS measures women’s perceptions of their partner’s controlling behaviours, and men’s perceptions of their own controlling behaviours. Using CIs, participants responded to a 13-item adaptation of the SRPS for use among South African youth (strongly agree-strongly disagree), and then were asked to think-aloud their reasoning for responses, their understanding and perceived relevance of each item, and made overall suggestions for scale adaptations. An item appraisal coding process was applied, whereby Cognitive Coding assessed the types of cognitive problems youth had with understanding the items, and Question Feature Coding assessed which item features caused problems for participant understandings. Finally, youth recommendations for scale adaptations were summarized. Results Overall, 21 women and 17 men aged 21–30 participated in CIs in Durban and Soweto, South Africa. Cognitive Coding revealed 1. Comprehension issues, and 2. Judgements related to items’ applicability to lived experiences and identities (e.g., being unmarried). Question Feature Coding revealed items’ 1. Lack of clarity or vagueness in wording and 2. Logical problems in assumptions leading to multiple interpretations (e.g., item ‘my partner always need to know where I am’ interpreted as both controlling and caring behaviour). Multiple, overlapping issues revealed how many items failed to “fit” within the present-day living realities of South African youth. Youth recommended several item adaptations and additions, including strength-based items, to existing measures of gender equity and relationship power. Conclusion Given identified issues, several adaptations including revising items to be more inclusive, contemporary, context specific, relational, and strength-based are needed to validly measure gender equity and power dynamics within the relationships of South African youth.

Relationship and Gender Equity Measurement Among Gender-Inclusive Young Women and Non-Binary Youth in British Columbia (RE-IMAGYN BC): Planning a Youth-Led, Community-Based, Qualitative Research Study

“…Cognitive interviews are a common qualitative research method used to assess construct validity in measurement science (Beatty & St. Willis, 2013). Often used as a means to pretest survey items before conduction, they can also be effective in understanding how participants answer items in a survey (Willis & Miller, 2011) and how participants’ lived/living experiences relate to the construct of interest (Closson et al, 2022). For RE-IMAGYN, we are using cognitive interviews to examine the ways in which young women and non-binary youth mentally process and respond to existing relationship and gender equity measures.…”

“…YRAs then ask a series of probes to understand whether the participant thought the question was confusing, if the response they wanted to give was available, if they thought there was a ‘right’ answer, and if the item was relevant to them and their relationship(s). This approach has been previously successful at gaining young South African’s perspectives on the Sexual Relationship Power Scale (Closson et al, 2022).…”

“…Participants were recruited until saturation of the data occured and there was enough diversity in our sample to explore themes across intersecting identities (e.g., gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity, relationship type) to explore themes across intersecting identities. This was estimated to require approximately 30 interviews, based on recommendations on thematic analysis and cognitive interviewing, as well as prior experience (Closson et al, 2022; Vasileiou et al, 2018). All study team members and community collaborators, particularly YAC members and YRAs, acted as initial key informants who helped to identify individuals from their circles (such as pride groups, partners, and friends).…”

“…For example, while there is little understanding of the power dynamics occurring within queer and trans relationships, evidence suggests that IPV may be more bidirectional in these relationships than in heterosexual cisgender relationships (Coulter et al, 2019; Rolle et al, 2018). Prior work conducted by members on our study team in partnership with South African youth revealed several measurement gaps of the Sexual Relationship Power Scale, including the need for more inclusive (e.g., that consider queer, trans, and non-monogamous youth experiences), more contemporary (e.g., that consider how technology impacts youth relationships), and more strength-based measures that move beyond risk-based narratives to explore relationship equity or positive relationship norms (Closson et al, 2022). While this work aimed to be inclusive of a diversity of perspectives, it was clear that efforts to address IPV through improved gender equity require data that is inclusive of queer and trans youth with diverse identities and relationship experiences (Pryor & Seck, 2019).…”

“…Much of the process described here has been based on lessons learned from a similar project conducted with youth in South Africa (Closson et al, 2022), highlighting that this approach can be transferred across contexts and populations. Our team aims to continue to expand and adapt this approach to other global settings and populations to investigate how inclusive relationship and gender equity measures can be explored and compared across global populations.…”