Journal
SOCIAL SCIENCE & MEDICINE
Volume 73, Issue 2, Pages 343-350Publisher
PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD
DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2011.05.044
Keywords
Botswana; Malawi; Mozambique; HIV/AIDS; Girls' vulnerability; Structural determinants of HIV; Social ecological approach; Community perspective; Gender
Funding
- AIDS Relief (PEPFAR)
- United States Agency for International Development (USAID) [GHH-I-00-07-00032-00, 01]
Ask authors/readers for more resources
In sub-Saharan Africa, adolescent girls are three to four times more likely than adolescent boys to be living with HIV/AIDS. A literature review revealed only four studies that had examined HIV vulnerability from the perspective of community members. None of the studies focused specifically on adolescent girls. To fill this gap, in 2008 12 focus group discussions were held in selected pen-urban and rural sites in Botswana, 12 in Malawi, and 11 in Mozambique to identify factors that render girls vulnerable to HIV infection from the community members' perspective. The preponderance of comments identified structural factors - insufficient economic, educational, socio-cultural, and legal support for adolescent girls - as the root causes of girls' vulnerability to HIV through exposure to unprotected sexual relationships, primarily relationships that are transactional and age-disparate. Community members explicitly called for policies and interventions to strengthen cultural, economic, educational, and legal structures to protect girls, recognized community members' responsibility to take action, and requested programs to enhance adult-child communication, thus revealing an understanding that girls' vulnerability is multi-level and multi-faceted, so must be addressed through a comprehensive approach to HIV prevention. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available