Gender Norms, Gender Role Conflict/Stress and HIV Risk Behaviors Among Men in Mpumalanga, South Africa.
Men's gender role conflict and stress (GRC/S), the psychological strain they experience around fulfilling expectations of themselves as men, has been largely unexplored in HIV prevention research. We examined associations between both men's gender norms and GRC/S and three HIV risk behaviors using data from a population-based survey of 579 18-35 year-old men in rural northeast South Africa. Prevalence of sexual partner concurrency and intimate partner violence (IPV) perpetration in the last 12 months were 38.0 and 13.4%, respectively; 19.9% abused alcohol. More inequitable gender norms and higher GRC/S were each significantly associated with an increased odds of concurrency (p = 0.01; p < 0.01, respectively), IPV perpetration (p = 0.03; p < 0.01), and alcohol abuse (p = 0.02; p < 0.001), controlling for demographic characteristics. Ancillary analyses demonstrated significant positive associations between: concurrency and the GRC/S sub-dimension subordination to women; IPV perpetration and restrictive emotionality; and alcohol abuse and success, power, competition. Programs to transform gender norms should be coupled with effective strategies to prevent and reduce men's GRC/S.
Department of Health Behavior, Gillings School of Global Public Health, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA. agottert@popcouncil.org.|Population Council, HIV and AIDS Program, 4301 Connecticut Avenue, NW, #280, Washington, DC, 20008, USA. agottert@popcouncil.org.
Ann
http://orcid.org/0000-0001-6422-9478
A
Gottert
Department of Health Behavior, Gillings School of Global Public Health, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA.
Clare
C
Barrington
Department of Health Behavior, Gillings School of Global Public Health, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA.
Heath Luz
HL
McNaughton-Reyes
Department of Health Behavior, Gillings School of Global Public Health, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA.
Suzanne
S
Maman
MRC/Wits Rural Public Health and Health Transitions Research Unit (Agincourt), School of Public Health, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa.|School of Health, University of New England, Armidale, NSW, Australia.
Catherine
C
MacPhail
MRC/Wits Rural Public Health and Health Transitions Research Unit (Agincourt), School of Public Health, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa.|Center for AIDS Prevention Studies, Department of Medicine, University of California at San Francisco, San Francisco, CA, USA.
Sheri A
SA
Lippman
MRC/Wits Rural Public Health and Health Transitions Research Unit (Agincourt), School of Public Health, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa.|Wits Reproductive Health and HIV Institute (WRHI), University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa.|Umeå Centre for Global Health Research, Division of Epidemiology and Global Health, Department of Public Health and Clinical Medicine, Umeå University, Umeå, Sweden.
Kathleen
K
Kahn
MRC/Wits Rural Public Health and Health Transitions Research Unit (Agincourt), School of Public Health, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa.|Wits Reproductive Health and HIV Institute (WRHI), University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa.
Rhian
R
Twine
MRC/Wits Rural Public Health and Health Transitions Research Unit (Agincourt), School of Public Health, Faculty of Health Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa.|Department of Epidemiology, Gillings School of Global Public Health, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Chapel Hill, NC, USA.
Audrey
A
Pettifor
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000437:Alcoholism / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D005783:Gender Identity; D015658:HIV Infections / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000523:psychology; D006801:Humans; D000066511:Intimate Partner Violence / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D008297:Male; D015995:Prevalence; D012309:Risk-Taking; D012424:Rural Population; D012747:Sexual Partners / Q000523:psychology; D013019:South Africa / Q000453:epidemiology; D013315:Stress, Psychological
Alcohol; Gender role; HIV; Sexual behavior; South Africa; Violence