Friendships Among Young South African Women, Sexual Behaviours and Connections to Sexual Partners (HPTN 068).

ABSTRACT: Friends could be influential on young women's sexual health via influences on sexual behaviours and as connections to sexual partners, but are understudied in sub-Saharan Africa. We cross-sectionally surveyed 2326 13-20 year-old young women eligible for grades 8-11 in rural South Africa about their sexual behaviour and up to three sexual partners. Participants each described five specific but unidentified friends and the relationships between them in an 'egocentric' network analysis design. We used logistic regression to investigate associations between friendship characteristics and participants' reports of ever having had sex (n = 2326) and recent condom use (n = 457). We used linear regression with random effects by participant to investigate friendship characteristics and age differenc

SUBMITTER: Fearon E 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6703905 | biostudies-literature | 2019 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature