TY - JOUR
T1 - Making sense of abstinence
T2 - Social representations in young Africans' HIV-related narratives from six countries
AU - Winskell, Kate
AU - Beres, Laura K.
AU - Hill, Elizabeth
AU - Mbakwem, Benjamin Chigozie
AU - Obyerodhyambo, Oby
N1 - Funding Information:
The research described here was supported by Grant Number 1 R03 HD054323 01 A1 from the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. Its contents are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. This research was also supported in part by the Emory Center for AIDS Research (P30 AI050409) and by Emory Global Health Institute. Special thanks go to Kim Miller and Rob Stephenson for their advice and guidance. Thanks also to research assistants Camilla Burkot, Liz Coleclough, Wendee Gardner, Rosalie Haughton, Samantha Huffman, Amy Patterson and Caddie Putnam Rankin.
PY - 2011/9
Y1 - 2011/9
N2 - Despite the prominence of abstinence promotion in HIV prevention for young Africans, there is little documentation concerning its reception and interpretation. With the purpose of informing programmatic practice, we examined how young Africans from six countries with contrasting HIV prevalence rates make sense of abstinence. 'Scenarios from Africa' scriptwriting contests invite young people to contribute ideas for short films about HIV. Using thematic narrative-based approaches, we analyzed a stratified random sample of these narratives written in 2005 by young women and men aged 10-24 years from Senegal, Burkina Faso, South-East Nigeria, Kenya, Namibia and Swaziland. Abstinence was considerably more prominent as a theme in the samples from SE Nigeria, Kenya and Swaziland. It was articulated in relation to conservative Christian sexual morality and in opposition to condom use with particular intensity in SE Nigeria, with stigmatising implications for non-abstainers. However, cross-national commonalities were more striking than differences. Examples of non-stigmatising proabstinence messaging highlighted the appeal of discourses of romantic love and future plans across countries and demographic characteristics. The analysis yielded contextual understanding, youth-driven ideas and recommendations to inform comprehensive HIV-prevention efforts.
AB - Despite the prominence of abstinence promotion in HIV prevention for young Africans, there is little documentation concerning its reception and interpretation. With the purpose of informing programmatic practice, we examined how young Africans from six countries with contrasting HIV prevalence rates make sense of abstinence. 'Scenarios from Africa' scriptwriting contests invite young people to contribute ideas for short films about HIV. Using thematic narrative-based approaches, we analyzed a stratified random sample of these narratives written in 2005 by young women and men aged 10-24 years from Senegal, Burkina Faso, South-East Nigeria, Kenya, Namibia and Swaziland. Abstinence was considerably more prominent as a theme in the samples from SE Nigeria, Kenya and Swaziland. It was articulated in relation to conservative Christian sexual morality and in opposition to condom use with particular intensity in SE Nigeria, with stigmatising implications for non-abstainers. However, cross-national commonalities were more striking than differences. Examples of non-stigmatising proabstinence messaging highlighted the appeal of discourses of romantic love and future plans across countries and demographic characteristics. The analysis yielded contextual understanding, youth-driven ideas and recommendations to inform comprehensive HIV-prevention efforts.
KW - Abstinence
KW - Africa
KW - HIV
KW - Narratives
KW - Young people
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U2 - 10.1080/13691058.2011.591431
DO - 10.1080/13691058.2011.591431
M3 - Article
C2 - 21787256
AN - SCOPUS:79960914841
SN - 1369-1058
VL - 13
SP - 945
EP - 959
JO - Culture, Health and Sexuality
JF - Culture, Health and Sexuality
IS - 8
ER -