Pathways to Buying Sex among Migrant Labors: The Mediatory Role of Family Bonds and Peer Deviance on Social Network Homogeneity

ABSTRACT

Family bonds and deviant peers constitute two important competing forces of socialization in migrants’ social life. This study furthers the theory of family-peer relationship by arguing that migrants’ social network homogeneity shapes the development of family bonds and peer deviance and is ultimately associated with increased likelihood of sexual risk behaviors. Applying regression techniques and structural equation modeling with bootstrapped estimates to survey data collected in 2011 among male Chinese migrant labors, this study found that 1) network homogeneity in terms of homeplace and occupation is associated with sexual risk behaviors, and 2) at least half portion of such association is significantly mediated by family bonds and peer deviance.

KEYWORDS:

• Sexual risk behavior
• mediation analysis
• family-peer relationship
• sex work
• migrants

Compliance with ethical standards

The survey protocols were approved by the IRB at the correspondence author’s institution (#03BSH010). All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Informed consent

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

Correction Statement

This article has been republished with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Funding

This study was funded by National Natural Science Foundation of China [71473221] and Health Culture Research Center of Shaanxi Province [JKWH2019-Y06].

Notes on contributors

Xiaozhao Y. Yang

Xiaozhao Y. Yang is an associate professor in the Department of Sociology and Social Work at Sun Yat-sen University, a 2016 Ph.D. from Purdue University. His research on at-risk health behaviors and contextual effects appeared in over 30 peer-reviewed journal articles and has been recognized with awards from organizations including the ASA, SSSP, and USCIS.

Tingzhong Yang

Tingzhong Yang is a professor at Children's Hospital of Zhejiang University School of Medicine, a forefront researcher and activist against the harms of the tobacco industry.