Substance use and watching pornography are drivers of transactional sex: evidence from young women receiving care from Uganda Youth Development Link

ABSTRACT

Background

We build on growing evidence to show that substance use and watching pornographic material are key factors that influence transactional sex.

Methods

We draw on a sample of 532 young women (10-24 years) enrolled in the Uganda Youth Development Link Programme from Central Uganda.

Results

The odds of watching pornographic material (aOR=3.77; 95%CI=1.76-8.09) and substance use (aOR=3.28; 95%CI=1.96-5.48) were higher for facilitating transactional sex among young women – reaffirming that substance use and watching pornographic material are risk factors for transactional sex in low-resource settings.

Conclusion

Efforts to address the sexual and reproductive health needs of young people in Uganda, should consider this unique risk factor profile.         

KEYWORDS:

• Substance Use
• watching pornography
• transactional sex
• young women
• Uganda

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.