“The Young Ones are the Condom Generation”: Condom Use amongst Out-of-School Adolescents in Rural Southwest Uganda

Abstract

This article reports on factors influencing condom use among out-of-school adolescents in rural southwest Uganda. Despite an abundance of negative discourses and myths about condoms in the community, these adolescents believe condoms protect them from sexually transmitted infections, HIV, and premarital pregnancies. Girls want partners to use condoms, but most lack the confidence to insist. Girls aged 13 to 14 reported the least difficulty asking for condoms; older girls attributed this to coming-of-age in the era of AIDS when condom use is the norm. Boys under 16 years want to use condoms, but lack confidence in application skills. Boys over 17 years always use condoms with casual partners, but only occasionally for pregnancy prevention with steady partners. Girls need skills training to improve confidence in negotiating condom use. Younger boys require training to improve confidence in skills with condom application. These findings are compared with studies conducted with in-school adolescents in the same study area. Health promotions that provide this skills training and focus on the need to think of the health of future family would be most effective for out-of-school adolescents. This study shows that it is self-confidence, rather than years of schooling, that has the greatest impact on condom use in this cohort.

Attitudes towards human papillomavirus vaccination among African parents in a city in the north of England: a qualitative study

“…For instance, the conspiracy theory that HIV was created in an American laboratory targeted at reducing the African population and was delivered to Africans through the polio vaccine affected uptake of polio and other vaccines, especially when they were donated from the west [40]. Similarly, rumours that donated condoms were tainted with HIV affected condom use [22]. These and other conspiracy theories have been reported as influencing decision-making for some parents;

“Remember this is a white man’s vaccine.

…”

“…A study by Marlow et al [1] found that mothers who thought their partners would be favourable to vaccination were likely to accept vaccination for their daughters. The male presence within the family unit is typically one of authority, thus a father holds the greater power in the decision-making process in all matters including sexuality, reproduction and matters pertaining to the children [22]. This is of particular importance in the African context, where the man in any relationship is the decision maker [22], making it impossible for mothers to act without permission from their husbands [23].…”

“…The male presence within the family unit is typically one of authority, thus a father holds the greater power in the decision-making process in all matters including sexuality, reproduction and matters pertaining to the children [22]. This is of particular importance in the African context, where the man in any relationship is the decision maker [22], making it impossible for mothers to act without permission from their husbands [23]. Generally, African women hold a lower social status and are disempowered, and the African tradition favours this [23].…”

Young people’s experiences in accessing sexual and reproductive health services in sub-Saharan Africa from 1994 to 2019 - A content analysis

“…One combined school and community [45] and the other combined clinic and households [49]. Also, two articles focused on only females [40,42] whilst one focused on only male [38] and the remaining eighteen considered both gender.…”

“…In addition, eleven of the studies focused on barriers to SRH services [32,[36][37][38][39][40]42,44,46,48,50], three on SRH education [33, 34,38]; another three on acceptance of SRH services [43,47,51], two on SRH services preferences [11,31], and one each on satisfaction from SRH services [35] and SRH services utilization [41].…”