Experience of Sexual Coercion Among Young People in Kenya, The

CONTEXT: Studies of sexual behavior among young clan in the developing world have generally omited the circumstances in which sex takes place, greatest in quantity often assuming that when young nation have sex, it is wanted and consensual. The hardly any published studies on nonconsensual sex have frequently used highly selective samples, ignoring the experience of males and of married young people

METHODS: A 2001 population-based review of young people in Nyeri, Kenya, included a special module upon sexual coercion. Descriptive data and multivariate analysis are used to explore the prevalence and patterns of sexual coercion among married and unmarried males and females aged 10-24

RESULTS: Among the sexually experienced respondent 21% of females and 11% of males had experienced sex beneath coercive conditions. Most of the perpetrators were intimate partners, including boyfriends, girlfriends and husbands. In a multivariate logistic regression, females who had at any time been married and those who did not live with a parent or spouse had a significantly elevated risk of sexual coercion (odd ratios, 26 and 31 respectively); sexual coercion was associated with having had multiple sexual partners and with having had a reproductive tract infection (22 and 25) Males who had been coerc into sex were significantly more likely than those who had not to have had a first partner who was older by means of at least five years (829)

CONCLUSION: Reproductive health programs for young clan need to address nonconsensual sex including the special urgencys of males and of married females.

International Family Planning Perspectives, 2004 30(4):182-189

The sexual behavior and reproductive health of young race in developing countries have attracted considerable attention above the last 15 years; youth constitute a large proportion of the population in these countries and are disproportionately affected by dint of HIV and other negative reproductive health outcomes1 The existing literature documents that adolescents engage in premarital sex with insufficient knowledge of reproduction and family planning, and that small proportions use contraceptives, especially condoms.2 Unfortunately, of the like kind studies have paid little attention to the social adjoining matter of adolescent sexual activityparticularly the influence that sex relations and power imbalances have upon whether and when young tribe have sex. Moreover, most of these studies have assumed that sex among young clan is wanted and consensual. Evidence is emerging, however, that a sizeable proportion of episodes of sex among youth may follow from coercion.

BACKGROUND

Sexual coercion deliver overs to a range of experiences that oblige a person to have sex against her or his will.3 These experiences include the use of "violence, threats, verbal insistence, deception, cultural expectations or economic circumstances"; the issue is a "lack of choice to hunt other options without severe social or physical consequences"4

The dearth of research upon the experience of sexual coercion among young nation is due, in part, to limited awareness, stigma, methodological constraints and ethical issues. greatest in quantity of the existing research has been administrationed among college-age women in unfolded countries. Eight percent of young women in a Canadian application of mind and 15% of those in a U investigation reported having been physically forced to have sex5 In a nationally representative inquiry of 1,121 U.S. youths aged 18-22 administrationed in 1987, 7% reported at any time having been forced to have sex with the highest rates among white females, of whom 13% reported having had like an experience before age 206 Moreover, 9% of women aged 15-24 participating in the 1995 National scan of Family Growth, a nationally representative U research reported that their first intercourse had not been voluntary.7

Studies have also examined long-term negative events of sexual coercion. Compared with young women who have not been sexually abused, those who have been abused watch to have more sex partners,8 as well as to have les superintendence over the terms of sex a lower likelihood of practicing family planning and using condoms; and a higher likelihood of experiencing sexually transmitted infections (STIs) and unwanted pregnancy.9 Long-term psychological effects of early sexual abuse include depression, musings about suicide, negative self-esteem and lowered self-efficacy, physic addiction and alcoholism.10 A research in the U.S. state of Washington set high rates of sexual abuse among ever-pregnant teenagers.11 In addition, young women in the application of mind who had been abused experienced sexual first appearance nearly two and a half years earlier than young women in the general population.

Over the past decade, a number of studies have demonstrated the difficulty of eliciting reliable reports of sexual coercion.12 Moreover, underreporting of sexual coercion among adolescents is likely to be mixed by underreporting of sexual intercourse.13 Premarital sex among young women is like a sensitive issue in many countries that accurate reporting is unlikely.14 In contrast, young men in many tillages may exaggerate their sexual experience because it is seen as a mark of manhood.15