dc.identifier.citation | Katz, I. T., Ybarra, M. L., Wyatt, M. A., Kiwanuka, J. P., Bangsberg, D. R., & Ware, N. C. (2013). Socio-cultural and economic antecedents of adolescent sexual decision-making and HIV-risk in rural Uganda. AIDS care, 25(2), 258-264. | en_US |
dc.description.abstract | With more than half of new infections occurring among youth, HIV/AIDS remains a major contributor to morbidity and mortality in Uganda. Semi-structured interviews were performed with 48 adolescents and 15 adult key informants in a rural Ugandan community to identify influences on adolescent sexual decision-making. Inductive data analytic methods revealed five thematic influences: 1) social pressure, 2) decline of the Senga (a familiar figure who traditionally taught female adolescents about how to run a household), 3) cultural barriers to condom use, 4) knowledge of HIV transmission and modes of prevention, and 5) a moral injunction against sex before marriage. Influences were classified as HIV/AIDS risk and protective factors and organized
to form an explanatory framework of adolescent sexual risk-taking. Risk factors pull youth toward
risky behavior, while protective factors push them away. Predominance of risk over protective influences explains persistent sexual risk-taking by Ugandan youth. HIV prevention programs designed for Ugandan adolescents should take competing factors and socio-cultural and economic
influences into account | en_US |