Unwanted sexual experiences among adolescent males in sub-Saharan Africa: prevalence and context

Ann M. Moore, Guttmacher Institute
Nyovani Madise, University of Southampton

Unwanted sexual experiences are most frequently examined from the woman’s perspective yet these experiences happen not only to women but to men as well. Unwanted sexual experiences are connected over one’s lifetime to demographic and health outcomes such as STI exposure, including HIV, and unintended pregnancies among their partners as well as negative psychological effects that place males at risk of future negative health outcomes. As a result, coercion has increasingly begun to draw the attention of reproductive health researchers. Using a unique set of data collected in 2003-2004 in Burkina Faso, Ghana, Uganda and Malawi with 12-19 year olds via in-depth interviews and nationally-representative surveys, we examine boys’ experiences of sexual coercion at debut as well as over their life course, boys’ narratives of experiencing coercive sexual intercourse experiences, and the risk and protective factors that frame boys’ vulnerability to unwanted sexual intercourse.