Social and cultural contexts of concurrency in a township in Cape Town, South Africa

dc.creatorMah, Timothy
dc.creatorMaughan-Brown, Brendan
dc.date2014-06-26T09:56:03Z
dc.date2014-06-26T09:56:03Z
dc.date2013
dc.date.accessioned2015-05-28T10:06:42Z
dc.date.available2015-05-28T10:06:42Z
dc.date.issued2015-05-28
dc.descriptionUnderstanding the social and cultural context in which concurrent sexual partnerships exist is important, given recent interventions to reduce their prevalence. This qualitative study seeks to improve the understanding of concurrent partnerships and perceptions of the link between concurrency and HIV risk in a South African township in Cape Town. Small-group discussion and focus-group participants reported that concurrency was a common phenomenon in their township. The most commonly cited reasons for participating in concurrent partnerships were material and financial exchange or gain and sexual dissatisfaction with partners. Although participants believed that being in a concurrent relationship increases the risk of acquiring HIV, they did not believe this discourages many people from engaging in these behaviours. This study highlights that concurrency in this context may be a social norm that is resistant to change. The efficacy of current programmes aimed at reducing concurrency needs to be examined in this context. Our findings suggest that improving economic independence at the individual level and improving sexual satisfaction within partnerships may have some leverage for concurrency reduction. An alternative approach to strengthen combination HIV-prevention strategies could be to increase condom use with the additional/side partners, whose predominant role is often perceived in terms of sex, with messages centred on the notion that sex with additional partner(s) should not endanger the main partner.
dc.identifierMah, T., Maughan-Brown, B. (2013). Social and cultural contexts of concurrency in a township in Cape Town, South Africa, Culture, Health & Sexuality, 15(2): 135-147.
dc.identifierhttp://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23181362
dc.identifierhttp://hdl.handle.net/11090/742
dc.identifier.ris TY - Journal Article DA - 2015-05-28 DB - OpenUCT DP - University of Cape Town KW - Concurrency KW - Concurrent sexual partnerships KW - HIV/AIDS KW - Qualitative analysis KW - Condom usage LK - https://open.uct.ac.za PB - University of Cape Town PY - 2015 T1 - Social and cultural contexts of concurrency in a township in Cape Town, South Africa TI - Social and cultural contexts of concurrency in a township in Cape Town, South Africa UR - http://hdl.handle.net/11090/742 ER - en_ZA
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/11090/742
dc.languageen
dc.publisherCulture, Health and Sexuality
dc.publisher.departmentSALDRUen_ZA
dc.publisher.facultyFaculty of Commerceen_ZA
dc.publisher.institutionUniversity of Cape Town
dc.subjectConcurrency
dc.subjectConcurrent sexual partnerships
dc.subjectHIV/AIDS
dc.subjectQualitative analysis
dc.subjectCondom usage
dc.titleSocial and cultural contexts of concurrency in a township in Cape Town, South Africa
dc.typeJournal Article
uct.type.publicationResearchen_ZA
uct.type.resourceArticleen_ZA
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