Research Site Anonymity in Context.

This paper utilizes critical theory to interrogate and problematize the practice of anonymising research sites as an ethical imperative. The contributing authors conduct research in and with various communities in southern Africa, position themselves and work from and within diverse areas and specialities of the social sciences. This article is developed from their rich and wide spectrum of field experience with a great diversity of communities, but mainly the poorer, under-resourced, socially and economically marginalized.

Domesticated Poly-Violence Against Women During the 2020 Covid-19 Lockdown in South Africa.

Globally, increased domestic violence against women during the 2020 Covid-19 lockdowns concerned researchers, policymakers, governments and the civil society. In South Africa, an increased risk for gender-based domestic violence against women during the lockdown period was reported by various sources including the national gender-based violence call centre (GBVCC), the South African Police Service (SAPS) and the civil society. Covid-19 lockdown encouraged spatial distance: a public health measure.

Food insecurity and depression: a cross-sectional study of a multi-site urban youth cohort in Durban and Soweto, South Africa.

Objective: To assess the prevalence of food insecurity and the independent association between depression and food insecurity among youth living in two urban settings in South Africa.

Methods: Baseline cross-sectional survey data was analysed from a prospective cohort study conducted between 2014 and 2016 among youth (aged 16-24 years) in Soweto and Durban. Interviewer-administered questionnaires collecting socio-demographic, sexual and reproductive health and mental health data were conducted.

Gender, Power, and Health: Measuring and Assessing Sexual Relationship Power Equity Among Young Sub-Saharan African Women and Men, a Systematic Review.

Gender inequity, including low sexual relationship power (SRP), is an important determinant of intimate partner violence (IPV) and negative sexual, reproductive, and mental health. Different versions of the Sexual Relationship Power Scale (SRPS) are commonly used within youth studies to examine how gender inequities, including controlling behaviors, in heterosexual relationships impact the lives of young people in sub-Saharan Africa. This review aims to (1) describe definitions and measures of SRP within sub-Saharan African youth studies and (2) review and summarize associations between SRP equity, IPV, and sexual, reproductive, and mental health.

Awareness and Rejection Accounts of Intimate Partner Violence by Young Women in Soweto, Johannesburg, South Africa.

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is the most prevalent form of interpersonal violence experienced by women in South Africa. A study conducted with young women from South Africa, aged 13 to 23 years, estimated that 42% experienced physical violence from their intimate partners. The subtle and nuanced social dynamics of IPV are less understood owing to little qualitative research on this subject.

Motivations for participating in a non-interventional gender-based violence survey in a low-income setting in South Africa.

Background: Qualitative study of motivations to participate in research into violence and other sensitive issues can help interpretation of findings from community based quantitative surveys. It is equally important to conduct research that may enable a deeper understanding on what motivates people to participate in GBV studies. To date, not much research has been conducted to investigate the factors that influence non-enrolment and enrolment in GBV studies from the viewpoint of the real participants.

"The child can remember your voice": parent-child communication about sexuality in the South African context.

There is a wealth of research on parent-child communication about sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) and its influence on young people's sexual behaviours. However, most of it is from the global North. The aim of this study was to explore parent-child communication in three South African provinces: Eastern Cape, KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) and Mpumalanga.

Gender-based violence and absent fathers: a scoping review protocol.

Introduction: Gender-based violence (GBV) and absent fathers are two epidemics that affect women and children in sub-Saharan Africa. However, the understanding of the complex links between GBV and absent fathers is currently inadequate. The aim of the study is to provide an overview of documented evidence that links GBV and absent fathers as well as identifies areas that require systematic review and where more primary research is needed.

Understanding the Relationships between Gender Inequitable Behaviours, Childhood Trauma and Socio-Economic Status in Single and Multiple Perpetrator Rape in Rural South Africa: Structural Equation Modelling.

Background: Interventions to prevent rape perpetration must be designed to address its drivers. This paper seeks to extend understanding of drivers of single and multiple perpetrator rape (referred to here as SPR and MPR respectively) and the relationships between socio-economic status, childhood trauma, peer pressure, other masculine behaviours and rape.

Method: 1370 young men aged 15 to 26 were interviewed as part of the randomised controlled trial evaluation of Stepping Stones in the rural Eastern Cape.

The second wave of violence scholarship: South African synergies with a global research agenda.

Violence is a serious public health and human rights challenge with global psychosocial impacts across the human lifespan. As a middle-income country (MIC), South Africa experiences high levels of interpersonal, self-directed and collective violence, taking physical, sexual and/or psychological forms. Careful epidemiological research has consistently shown that complex causal pathways bind the social fabric of structural inequality, socio-cultural tolerance of violence, militarized masculinity, disrupted community and family life, and erosion of social capital, to individual-level biological, developmental and personality-related risk factors to produce this polymorphic profile of violence in the country.

Perpetration of physical and sexual abuse and subsequent fathering of pregnancies among a cohort of young South African men: a longitudinal study.

Background: Young men's involvement in fathering pregnancies has been substantially neglected in unintended pregnancy research. Gender norms give men substantial power and control over sexual encounters, suggesting that understanding men's role is imperative. We tested the hypothesis that young, unmarried South African men who had perpetrated intimate partner violence (IPV) have a greater incidence of fathering pregnancies.

Risk factors for unplanned and unwanted teenage pregnancies occurring over two years of follow-up among a cohort of young South African women.

Background: Although teenage pregnancies in South Africa have declined, the short and longer term health and social consequences are a potential public health concern. This longitudinal study aimed to describe the range of risk and protective factors for incident unwanted and unplanned pregnancies occurring over 2 years of follow-up among a cohort of adolescent women in the Eastern Cape, South Africa. It also investigated the relationship between gender inequality and gender-based violence and subsequent unplanned and unwanted pregnancies among the cohort.

Early adolescent pregnancy increases risk of incident HIV infection in the Eastern Cape, South Africa: a longitudinal study.

Introduction: Adolescents having unprotected heterosexual intercourse are at risk of HIV infection and unwanted pregnancy. However, there is little evidence to indicate whether pregnancy in early adolescence increases the risk of subsequent HIV infection. In this paper, we tested the hypothesis that adolescent pregnancy (aged 15 or younger) increases the risk of incident HIV infection in young South African women.

Prevalence and factors associated with depressive symptoms among young women and men in the Eastern Cape Province, South Africa.

Purpose: There is little research on prevalence of depressive symptoms and associated factors among youth in sub-Saharan Africa. This paper explores factors associated with depressive symptomatology in South Africa.

Methods: A cross-sectional analysis of interviews with 1 415 women and 1 368 men aged 15-26 was undertaken.

Motivations for, and perceptions and experiences of participating in, a cluster randomised controlled trial of a HIV-behavioural intervention in rural South Africa.

Empirical research on ethical issues in HIV-prevention and gender-based violence research, critical for honing ethical and safety guidelines, is limited. In this paper we describe South African young people's motivations for participating in randomised controlled trial, the prevalence of negative occurrences, participation regrets and associated factors. This trial partly followed, but also deviated from, the WHO safety guidelines for research on violence against women.

Prospective study of rape perpetration by young South African men: incidence & risk factors.

Background: There has been very little prospective research on rape perpetration among men. This paper describes the incidence and risk factors for new rape and attempted rape events among young South African men in an HIV prevention trial.

Methods: We followed 1,147 men aged 15-26 years who enrolled into a cluster randomised controlled trial to evaluate the HIV prevention behavioural intervention Stepping Stones.

Adverse mental health outcomes associated with emotional abuse in young rural South African women: a cross-sectional study.

There is a lack of data on the prevalence of emotional abuse in youth. The aim of this study was thus to estimate the prevalence of emotional abuse in intimate partnerships among young women in rural South Africa and to measure the association between lifetime experience of emotional abuse (with and without the combined experience of physical and/or sexual abuse) and adverse health outcomes. Between 2002 and 2003, young women from 70 villages were recruited to participate in the cluster randomized controlled trial of an HIV behavioral intervention, Stepping Stones.

Negative stereotypes examined through the HIV and AIDS discourse: qualitative findings from white young people in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Previous studies reporting perceptions of HIV and AIDS by white youth in South Africa suggest both explicit and implicit racial stereotypes and negative attitudes. This paper contributes to the literature on the discourse of racial stereotypes found in discussions about HIV and AIDS. The study was conducted in the suburb of Edenvale, north-east of Johannesburg, South Africa.

Associations between depressive symptoms, sexual behaviour and relationship characteristics: a prospective cohort study of young women and men in the Eastern Cape, South Africa.

Background: Psychological factors are often neglected in HIV research, although psychological distress is common in low- to middle-income countries, such as South Africa. There is a need to deepen our understanding of the role of mental health factors in the HIV epidemic. We set out to investigate whether baseline depressive symptomatology was associated with risky sexual behaviour and relationship characteristics of men and women at baseline, as well as those found 12 months later.

Associations between childhood adversity and depression, substance abuse and HIV and HSV2 incident infections in rural South African youth.

Objectives: To describe prevalence of childhood experiences of adversity in rural South African youth and their associations with health outcomes.

Methods: We analyzed questionnaires and blood specimens collected during a baseline survey for a cluster randomized controlled trial of a behavioral intervention, and also tested blood HIV and herpes simplex type 2 virus at 12- and 24-month follow up; 1,367 male and 1,415 female volunteers were recruited from 70 rural villages.

Results: Both women and men before 18 had experienced physical punishment (89.

Factors associated with consistent condom use among rural young women in South Africa.

Despite high levels of awareness of HIV, condom use, particularly consistent use, is suboptimal among young South African women. This paper aims to investigate the factors associated with both any condom use and consistent use by young rural women. In this study 1204 sexually active female volunteers, aged 15-26 years, were selected using a two-stage procedure in which firstly 70 clusters were selected and thereafter up to 20 women per cluster were selected, to participate in a cluster randomised controlled trial of an HIV behavioural intervention.

Intimate partner violence, relationship power inequity, and incidence of HIV infection in young women in South Africa: a cohort study.

Background: Cross-sectional studies have shown that intimate partner violence and gender inequity in relationships are associated with increased prevalence of HIV in women. Yet temporal sequence and causality have been questioned, and few HIV prevention programmes address these issues. We assessed whether intimate partner violence and relationship power inequity increase risk of incident HIV infection in South African women.

Responding to her question: a review of the influence of pregnancy on HIV disease progression in the context of expanded access to HAART in sub-Saharan Africa.

In 2007, sub-Saharan Africa was home to over half of all women living with HIV. The vast majority of these women are of reproductive age, which raises concerns about the high incidence of pregnancy. As access to antiretroviral treatment is rapidly scaled up, two important questions must be answered: (1) Does pregnancy impact HIV disease progression?; (2) Does pregnancy modify the highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) response on HIV disease progression? A systematic review of the biomedical literature was conducted and seven relevant studies were identified.

Women living with HIV in South Africa and their concerns about fertility.

Health and quality of life benefits accrued from the availability of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) are commendable, but the social milieu continues to pose challenges for women's decision making around having children. This paper qualitatively explored women's questions and concerns around living with HIV, being on HAART and pregnancy. Women of reproductive age were recruited from Eastern Cape and Gauteng Provinces, South Africa.

Transactional sex with casual and main partners among young South African men in the rural Eastern Cape: prevalence, predictors, and associations with gender-based violence.

We explored the prevalence and predictors of transactional sex with casual partners and main girlfriends among 1288 men aged 15-26 from 70 villages in the rural Eastern Cape province of South Africa. Data were collected through face-to-face interviews with young men enroling in the Stepping Stones HIV prevention trial. A total of 17.