The Impact of Socio-Demographic and Religious Factors upon Sexual Behavior among Ugandan University Students

INTRODUCTION: More knowledge is needed about structural factors in society that affect risky sexual behaviors. Educational institutions such as universities provide an opportune arena for interventions among young people. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between sociodemographic and religious factors and their impact on sexual behavior among university students in Uganda. METHODS: In 2005, 980 university students (response rate 80%) were assessed by a self-administered questionnaire. Validated instruments were used to assess socio-demographic and religious factors and sexual behavior. Logistic regression analyses were applied. RESULTS: Our findings indicated that 37% of the male and 49% of the female students had not previously had sex. Of those with sexual experience, 46% of the males and 23% of the females had had three or more sexual partners, and 32% of the males and 38% of the females did not consistently use condoms. For those who rated religion as less important in their family, the probability of early sexual activity and having had a high number of lifetime partners increased by a statistically significant amount (OR = 1.7; 95% CI: 1.2-2.4 and OR = 1.6; 95% CI: 1.1-2.3, respectively). However, the role of religion seemed to have no impact on condom use. Being of Protestant faith interacted with gender: among those who had debuted sexually, Protestant female students were more likely to have had three or more lifetime partners; the opposite was true for Protestant male students. CONCLUSION: Religion emerged as an important determinant of sexual behavior among Ugandan university students. Our findings correlate with the increasing number of conservative religious injunctions against premarital sex directed at young people in many countries with a high burden. of HIV/AIDS. Such influence of religion must be taken into account in order to gain a deeper understanding of the forces that shape sexual behavior in Uganda

Uncertainty and Narratives of the Future. A Theoretical Framework for Contemporary Fertility

Explanations for fertility decisions based on structural constraints—such as labor, housing condition, or income—do not account for the contemporary fertility downturn faced by many countries in Europe. In this paper, we posit that the rise of uncertainty is central for understanding contemporary fertility dynamics. We propose a theoretical framework (the Narrative Framework) for the study of fertility decisions under uncertain conditions based on expectations, imaginaries and narratives. Relying on the idea of future–oriented action, we argue that uncertainty needs to be conceptualized and operationalized taking into account that people use works of imagination, producing their own narrative of the future. Narratives of the future are potent driving forces helping people to act according to or despite uncertainty. We present the different elements of the Narrative Framework and address its causal validity. We conclude by highlighting the advantages of taking into account the narratives of the future in fertility research

Promotion of couples' voluntary counselling and testing for HIV through influential networks in two African capital cities

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Most new HIV infections in Africa are acquired from cohabiting heterosexual partners. Couples' Voluntary Counselling and Testing (CVCT) is an effective prevention strategy for this group. We present our experience with a community-based program for the promotion of CVCT in Kigali, Rwanda and Lusaka, Zambia.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Influence Network Agents (INAs) from the health, religious, non-governmental, and private sectors were trained to invite couples for CVCT. Predictors of successful promotion were identified using a multi-level hierarchical analysis.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>In 4 months, 9,900 invitations were distributed by 61 INAs, with 1,411 (14.3%) couples requesting CVCT. INAs in Rwanda distributed fewer invitations (2,680 vs. 7,220) and had higher response rates (26.9% vs. 9.6%), than INAs in Zambia. Context of the invitation event, including a discreet location such as the INA's home (OR 3.3–3.4), delivery of the invitation to both partners in the couple (OR 1.6–1.7) or to someone known to the INA (OR 1.7–1.8), and use of public endorsement (OR 1.7–1.8) were stronger predictors of success than INA or couple-level characteristics.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Predictors of successful CVCT promotion included strategies that can be easily implemented in Africa. As new resources become available for Africans with HIV, CVCT should be broadly implemented as a point of entry for prevention, care and support.</p

Measuring Five Dimensions of Religiosity Across Adolescence

This paper theorizes and tests a latent variable model of adolescent religiosity in which five dimensions of religiosity are interrelated: religious beliefs, religious exclusivity, external religiosity, private practice, and religious salience. Research often theorizes overlapping and independent influences of single items or dimensions of religiosity on outcomes such as adolescent sexual behavior, but rarely operationalizes the dimensions in a measurement model accounting for their associations with each other and across time. We use longitudinal structural equation modeling (SEM) with latent variables to analyze data from two waves of the National Study of Youth and Religion. We test our hypothesized measurement model as compared to four alternate measurement models and find that our proposed model maintains superior fit. We then discuss the associations between the five dimensions of religiosity we measure and how these change over time. Our findings suggest how future research might better operationalize multiple dimensions of religiosity in studies of the influence of religion in adolescence

Mobile phones, digital inequality, and fertility: longitudinal evidence from Malawi

BACKGROUND: In this paper, we introduce the digital revolution as a potential ingredient of sub-Saharan Africa’s fertility transition. OBJECTIVE: We focus on the relationship between mobile phone ownership and childbearing in southern Malawi, showing that mobile phone acquisition is associated with reductions in ideal family size and lower overall parity among phone-owning women compared to their phone-less counterparts. METHODS: We use nine waves of data from the Tsogolo la Thanzi (TLT) longitudinal study conducted in Balaka, Malawi, between 2009 and 2015. RESULTS: Fixed-effects panel data models shows that mobile phone ownership is associated with smaller ideal family size and lower parity during the study period. Cox proportional hazard models suggest that mobile phones are not fundamentally associated with the timing of women’s first steps in family formation but rather with fertility trajectories on a longer time-horizon through child spacing. Furthermore, complementary cross-sectional analyses from a later survey round suggest that mobile phone ownership is associated with fertility through role modeling, preference change, and access to information. CONCLUSIONS: Mobile phone ownership is associated with fertility via role modeling, preference change, and access to information rather than through substitution effects. CONTRIBUTION: Bridging the digital divide may hasten the fertility transition in sub-Saharan Africa.</p

Creating social spaces to tackle AIDS-related stigma: reviewing the role of church groups in Sub-Saharan Africa

An expanding body of literature explores the role of African church groups in facilitating or hindering the support of people living with AIDS and challenging or contributing to HIV/AIDS-related stigma. Treating church groups as social spaces in which HIV/AIDS-related stigma may potentially be challenged, we systematically review this literature, identifying five themes that highlight the complex and contradictory role of the church as a potential agent of health-enhancing social change. In many ways the church perpetuates HIV/AIDS-related stigma through (i) moralistic attitudes and (ii) its reinforcement of conservative gender ideologies. However some churches have managed move towards action that makes a more positive contribution to HIV/AIDS management through (iii) promoting various forms of social control for HIV prevention, (iv) contributing to the care and support of the AIDS-affected and (v) providing social spaces for challenging stigmatising ideas and practices. We conclude that church groups, including church leadership, can play a key role in facilitating or hindering the creation of supportive social spaces to challenge stigma. Much work remains to be done in developing deeper understandings of the multi-layered factors that enable some churches, but not others, to respond effectively to HIV/AIDS

Child nutritional status among births exceeding ideal family size in a high fertility population

Ideal family size (IFS) is measured in social surveys to indicate unmet need for contraception and impending shifts in fertility behaviour. Whether exceeding IFS affects parental behaviour in ways that result in lower investments in child nutrition, well-being, and educational attainment is not known. This study examines parental IFS and the association between exceeding stated ideals and child nutritional status in a high-fertility, high-mortality population in the Bolivian Amazon. Height-for-age z-scores, weight-for-age z-scores, weight-for-height z-scores, stunting, haemoglobin, and anaemia status in 638 children aged 0-5&nbsp;years are predicted as a function of birth order in relation to parental IFS, adjusting for household characteristics and mother and child random effects. Children of birth orders above paternal IFS experience higher weight-for-age z-scores when living further away from the market town of San Borja, consistent with underlying motivations for higher IFS and lower human capital investment in children in more remote areas (β&nbsp;=&nbsp;.009, p&nbsp;=&nbsp;.027). Overall, we find no statistical evidence that birth orders in excess of parental ideals are associated with compromised child nutrition below age 2, a period of intensive breastfeeding in this population. Despite a vulnerability to nutritional deficiencies postweaning for children age 2-5, there was no association between birth order in excess of parental ideals and lower nutritional status. Further studies examining this association at various stages of the fertility transition will elucidate whether reported ideal or optimal family sizes are flexible as trade-offs between quality and quantity of children shift during the transition to lower fertility