Basic deprivation and involvement in risky sexual behaviour among out-of-school young people in a Lagos slum

Abstract

Research has shown that in countries such as Nigeria many urban dwellers live in a state of squalour and lack the basic necessities of food, clothing and shelter. The present study set out to examine the association between forms of basic deprivation--such as food deprivation, high occupancy ratio as a form of shelter deprivation, and inadequate clothing--and two sexual outcomes--timing of onset of penetrative sex and involvement in multiple sexual partnerships. The study used survey data from a sample of 480 girls resident in Iwaya community. A survival analysis of the timing of onset of sex and a regression model for involvement in multiple sexual partnerships reveal that among the forms of deprivation explored, food deprivation is the only significant predictor of the timing of onset of sex and involvement in multiple sexual partnerships. The study concludes that the sexual activities of poor out-of-school girls are partly explained by their desire to overcome food deprivation and recommends that government and non-governmental-organisation programmes working with young people should address the problem of basic deprivation among adolescent girls.

Economic Context and HIV Vulnerability in Adolescents and Young Adults Living in Urban Slums in Kenya: A Qualitative Analysis Based on Scarcity Theory

“…For example, in Uganda, Kenya, and Lesotho, studies have shown that young women increased supply of sex to acquire luxury goods, such as mobile phones and high-priced clothing [10, 29], but had greater choice whether to use a condom or engage in sex or not when earning salary through employment [76]. In Nigeria, a study also found that attempts to mitigate food deprivation partly explained slum adolescent girls’ engaging in risky sexual behaviors [77]. The observation that men have more non-sexual opportunities to earn income has been documented in Mozambique and Haiti [28, 78], and was also described among our youth in Kenya.…”

Lessons learned from using respondent-driven sampling (RDS) to assess sexual risk behaviors among Kenyan young adults living in urban slum settlements: A process evaluation

“…In addition, Kenyan young adults within the lowest wealth quintile and in urban areas have higher HIV prevalence (3.1% and 7.2%) in comparison to wealthier young adults (2.6%) living in rural areas (6.0%) [5]. Young adults living in urban slum settlements engage frequently in sexual risk behaviors, such as condomless sex, transactional sex, or sex with multiple concurrent sexual partners that result in higher risk of HIV and other sexually transmitted infections [6][7][8][9]. In addition to being at increased risk for HIV, young adults living in urban slum settlements are often hidden and not well reached using traditional surveillance systems [10].…”

Material deprivation and sexual risk nexus among young people in urban disadvantaged settings in Malawi and South Africa

“…Deprivations of material resources such as food, housing and health care are currently receiving increased research attention as critical in uences of sexual risk in disadvantaged urban settings in sub-Saharan Africa [10][11][12][13]. This attention is premised on the understanding that traditional income-related measures of disadvantage (income, wealth and education) do not re ect unique basic needs, particularly for vulnerable groups of young people living in urban disadvantaged settings [3,13,14]. In this regard, urban scholars have suggested a shift from income-related measures of disadvantage to measures that capture critical aspects of disadvantage that best represent the unique needs of vulnerable groups in poor urban settings [10,13,15].…”

“…This attention is premised on the understanding that traditional income-related measures of disadvantage (income, wealth and education) do not re ect unique basic needs, particularly for vulnerable groups of young people living in urban disadvantaged settings [3,13,14]. In this regard, urban scholars have suggested a shift from income-related measures of disadvantage to measures that capture critical aspects of disadvantage that best represent the unique needs of vulnerable groups in poor urban settings [10,13,15]. These measures include aspects of housing quality, instability and overcrowding [16]; availability, accessibility and utilization of food [17] and affordability, acceptability and availability of health care [18,19].…”