Transactional sex with casual and main partners among young South African men in the rural Eastern Cape: Prevalence, predictors, and associations with gender-based violence

Abstract

We explored the prevalence and predictors of transactional sex with casual partners and main girlfriends among 1,288 men aged 15-26 from 70 villages in the rural Eastern Cape province of South Africa. Data were collected through face-to-face interviews with young men enrolling in the Stepping Stones HIV prevention trial. A total of 17.7% of participants reported giving material resources or money to casual sex partners and 6.6% received resources from a casual partner. Transactionally motivated relationships with main girlfriends were more balanced between giving (14.9%) and getting (14.3%). We constructed multivariable models to identify the predictors for giving and for getting material resources in casual and in main relationships. Each model resulted in remarkably similar predictors. All four types of exchange were associated with higher socio-economic status, more adverse childhood experiences, more lifetime sexual partners, and alcohol use. Men who were more resistant to peer pressure to have sex were less likely to report transactional sex with casual partners, and men who reported more equitable gender attitudes were less likely to report main partnerships underpinned by exchange. The most consistent predictor of all four types of transaction was the perpetration of intimate partner violence and rape against women other than a main partner. The strong and consistent association between perpetration of gender-based violence and both giving and getting material goods from female partners suggests that transactional sex in both main and casual relationships can be viewed within a broader continuum of men's exercise of gendered power Corresponding Author

‘Youthscapes’ and escapes in rural Africa: Education, mobility and livelihood trajectories for young people in Eastern Cape, South Africa

“…In South Africa, many people referred to schoolgirls using so-called sugar daddies (older men) to acquire key items like smart mobile phones. In southern Africa, where the pattern of girls having older sexual partners has been linked to HIV and AIDS risks, intimate relationships are conventionally intertwined with money or gifts (Bryceson and Fonseca 2006;Dunkle et al 2007;Poulin 2007). The implications of such liaisons for girls' school careers are rarely positive.…”

Taxi ‘sugar daddies’ and taxi queens: Male taxi driver attitudes regarding transactional relationships in the Western Cape, South Africa

“…Transactional sex that is not sex work in the traditional sense, nor only an outcome of poverty, but is also fuelled by consumerist pressures to acquire goods and social status, as well as linked with culturally-based notions of gender, love and exchange (see Bhana & Pattman 2011;Hunter 2002Hunter , 2010, has also been shown to be common. Studies have indicated that transactional sexual relationships, especially when they involve a number of power dynamics including age and access to resources, play a significant role in unsafe, unequal and coercive sexual practices, and as a result are receiving increased attention in Africa (Clowes, Shefer, Fouten, Vergnani & Jacobs 2009;Dunkle, Jewkes, Brown, Gray, McIntyre & Harlow 2004;Dunkle, Jewkes, Nduna, Jama, Levin, Sikweyiya, et al 2007;Hallman 2004;Kaufman & Stavros 2004;Leclerc-Madlala 2003;Maganja, Maman, Groves & Mbwambo 2007;Masvawure 2010;Ulin 1992).…”

Partnering with Batswana Youth and Families for HIV and AIDS Prevention

“…Young people are usually financially and materially motivated to engage in these types of relationships. They receive gifts, money, clothes food, cosmetics, cash and clothing and other resources in exchange of sex) [15]. These relationships come with varying levels of commitment because in most instances these sugar dads and moms are engaged in relationships with other partners and will not invest in their relations with young people [16,17].…”