Sexual decision making of Ugandan young adults: findings from national online discussions

ABSTRACT

Fifty-one 18–22-year-old Ugandans took part in asynchronous online discussions about sexual decision-making. To increase generalizability and variability of experience, youth were recruited across the country using social media advertising. Participants were stratified into 8 groups by sex and sexual experience (e.g., women who had not had sex). Participants were asked questions such as, “What role do you think [men/women] play in deciding when a couple is going to play sex?” Several themes emerged. Both young men and women articulated social pressures to be abstinent, particularly to avoid STIs and pregnancy moreso than saving oneself for marriage. That said, women noted pressures to be seen as “pure”. There also were pressures to have sex: Men were expected to have sex to demonstrate their virility. Women were expected to have sex if they accepted gifts or other commodities from their partners. It seemed that the specter of HIV and other STIs, as well as unwanted pregnancy, served to mitigate these expectations however, resulting in self-efficacy to use condoms among both men and women. Nonetheless, both men and women acknowledged that it could be hard for women to negotiate condoms. Implications for HIV prevention are discussed.

KEYWORDS:

• Young adults
• HIV prevention
• qualitative data
• sexual decision-making
• Uganda

Acknowledgements

We thank the study participants and research team for their contributions to the study. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.

Disclosure statement

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

Consent to participate

All participants provided informed verbal consent.

Ethics approval

Chesapeake IRB (now Advarra IRB) and the Mbarara University Science and Technology Research Ethics Board reviewed and approved the protocol.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and th National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH) of the National Institutes of Health [grant number R34MH109296].