Constrained relationship agency as the risk factor for intimate partner violence in different models of transactional sex

Abstract

Women who engage in transactional sex are more likely to experience intimate partner violence (IPV) and are at higher risk of HIV. However, women engage in transactional sex for a variety of reasons and the precise mechanism linking transactional sex and IPV is not fully understood. We conducted a behavioural survey with a cross-sectional sample of 401 women attending 1 rural and 1 urban public antenatal clinic in Swaziland between February and June 2014. We used structural equation modelling to identify and measure constrained relationship agency (CRA) as a latent variable, and then tested the hypothesis that CRA plays a significant role in the pathway between IPV and transactional sex. After controlling for CRA, receiving more material goods from a sexual partner was not associated with higher levels of physical or sexual IPV and was protective against emotional IPV. CRA was the single largest predictor of IPV, and more education was associated with decreased levels of constrained relationship agency. Policies and interventions that target transactional sex as a driver of IPV and HIV may be more successful if they instead target the broader social landscape that constrains women’s agency and drives the harmful aspects of transactional sex.

Love matters: exploring conceptions of love in Rwanda and Swaziland and relationship to HIV and intimate partner violence

“…In our research, women recast gifts bestowed by lovers as being valuable not because of their economic value, but because of the emotional currency of such gifts as demonstrations of love. In fact, Fielding-Miller and Dunkle’s (2017) research with Swazi women finds that there are very real emotional benefits to receiving gifts, in that women who receive more gifts are less likely to report emotional IPV.…”

“…Indeed, Fielding-Miller and Dunkle’s (2017) research of transactional sex in Swaziland found that love was protective against IPV, in that women who reported having sex with a partner for reasons other than love or affection (such as poverty, money, hunger, fear of abandonment, or violence) had increased odds of emotional, physical, and sexual violence. Starmann and colleagues (2016) assessed processes of change among couples exposed to the SASA!…”

“…A wealth of research has investigated how material exchange and gifts intersect with love and romance in contemporary Africa (Samuelsen, 2006; Poulin, 2007; Stoebenau et al, 2011; Selikow & Mbulaheni, 2013; Mojola, 2014; Fielding-Miller & Dunkle, 2017). Researchers have focused primarily on transactional sex among unmarried populations and particularly on “sugar daddy” relationships between older men and younger women, perhaps setting up this type of transaction as the prototypical sex-gift exchange.…”

“…There are no population-based IPV data available from Demographic and Health Surveys or similar surveys, but available data suggest a high prevalence of IPV. More than 1 in 10 Swazi women report having experienced forced sex in their lifetime (Tsai et al, 2011), and a recent study of pregnant women found that 1 in 4 reported emotional IPV in the past year, 15% reported physical IPV, and 14% reported sexual IPV (Fielding-Miller & Dunkle, 2017). …”

Relative risk of intimate partner violence according to access to instrumental social support among pregnant women in Eswatini whose partners do and do not drink alcohol

“…Social and structural drivers also strongly influence women's risk of experiencing IPV: Women in the Kingdom of Eswatini (Swaziland) and Botswana who reported food insufficiency were more likely to report forced sex in the previous 12 months [20], and a relatively large body of evidence from sub-Saharan Africa suggests that personal and familial food insecurity is associated with hazardous transactional sex, which in turn is frequently associated with higher rates of violence [5,[21][22][23][24].…”