Gender attitudes, sexual violence, and HIV/AIDS risks among men and women in Cape Town, South Africa

Journal of Sex Research, Nov, 2005 by Seth C. Kalichman, Leickness C. Simbayi, Michelle Kaufman, Demetria Cherry Cain, Chauncey, Sean Jooste, Vuyisile Mathiti

Sexually Violent Experiences

Sexual violence was reported by men and women as indicated by endorsing any of the sexual violence items; over 16% of men and 40% of women indicated that they had been victims of sexual assault as adults. As shown in Table 2, 10% of men and 29% of women had been forced to have sexual intercourse. Women frequently reported multiple sexual assault experiences, with 13% of women experiencing at least two different types of sexual assault. In terms of having perpetrated sexual assault against others, 23% of men endorsed at least one of the sexual assault items, indicating that they had sexually assaulted a woman. In addition, 16% of women endorsed at least one item reporting that they had perpetrated sexual assault.

Gender Attitudes and Rape Myth Acceptance

Both men and women endorsed gender attitudes that represent traditional, submissive, and passive roles of women, with nearly all men and women stating that women should obey their husbands. Two out of three men and women agreed that there are many jobs that men can do much better than women, and one in three participants stated that women should not talk to men about sex (see Table 3). Although there were select gender differences on gender attitude items, there was a general pattern of response rates for men and women being more alike than different.

We observed a similar pattern of results for the rape myth acceptance items, with as many as one in five participants across genders agreeing that rape usually results from things that a woman says or does (27% across genders), that some cases of rape involve a woman who wants to have sex (18% across genders), and that rape is often a woman's fault (29% across genders). There were, again, few differences between men and women in terms of acceptance of rape myths (see Table 3).

Factors Associated with Sexual Risks for HIV Infection

Bivariate correlations among the transformed HIV risk composite index, gender attitudes, rape myth acceptance, sexual assault variables, substance use, and AIDS knowledge scores for men and women are presented in Table 4. For men, the HIV risk composite was significantly related to use of multiple substances, histories of having perpetrated sexual assault and having been sexually assaulted, and rape myth acceptance scores. Among women, HIV risk composite scores were significantly correlated with alcohol use and having been sexually assaulted. These results supported conducting multiple regressions on the HIV risk composite for both men and women.

We performed multiple regression analyses with the transformed HIV risk composite index entered as the dependent variable and the following measures entered as predictor variables: participant education, AIDS knowledge test scores, alcohol, mandrax and dagga use, sexually violent experiences (both perpetrated and victimized), gender attitudes, and rape myth acceptance. For men, the regression analysis showed that education, AIDS knowledge, alcohol and mandrax use, having perpetrated sexual assault, and rape myth acceptance significantly predicted HIV risk factors, F (9, 367) = 11.7, p < .01, adjusted [R.sup.2] =.16 (see Table 5).