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Power and the association with relationship quality in South African couples: Implications for HIV/AIDS interventions.

Power and the association with relationship quality in South African couples: Implications for HIV/AIDS interventions.
Power and the association with relationship quality in South African couples: Implications for HIV/AIDS interventions.
Introduction: power imbalances within sexual relationships have significant implications for HIV prevention in sub-Saharan Africa. Little is known about how power influences the quality of a relationship, which could be an important pathway leading to healthy behavior around HIV/AIDS.

Methods: this paper uses data from 448 heterosexual couples (896 individuals) in rural KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa who completed baseline surveys from 2012 to 2014 as part of a couples-based HIV intervention trial. Using an actor-partner interdependence perspective, we assessed: (1) how both partners' perceptions of power influences their own (i.e., actor effect) and their partner's reports of relationship quality (i.e., partner effect); and (2) whether these associations differed by gender. We examined three constructs related to power (female power, male equitable gender norms, and shared power) and four domains of relationship quality (intimacy, trust, mutually constructive communication, and conflict).

Results: for actor effects, shared power was strongly and consistently associated with higher relationship quality across all four domains. The effect of shared power on trust, mutually constructive communication, and conflict were stronger for men than women. The findings for female power and male equitable gender norms were more mixed. Female power was positively associated with women's reports of trust and mutually constructive communication, but negatively associated with intimacy. Male equitable gender norms were positively associated with men's reports of mutually constructive communication. For partner effects, male equitable gender norms were positively associated with women's reports of intimacy and negatively associated with women's reports of conflict.

Conclusions: research and health interventions aiming to improving HIV-related behaviors should consider sources of shared power within couples and potential leverage points for empowerment at the couple level. Efforts solely focused on empowering women should also take the dyadic environment and men's perspectives into account to ensure positive relationship outcomes
0277-9536
1-11
Conroy, Amy A.
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Mcgrath, Nuala
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van Rooyen, Heidi
19159681-0f8c-42da-8c8b-3001d4ada200
Hosegood, Vicky
c59a89d5-5edc-42dd-b282-f44458fd2993
Johnson, Mallory O.
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Fritz, Katherine
05c44089-1e99-46e1-9f75-d14532b8a9fd
Marr, Alexander
ca08ccd8-e29f-4ede-99d2-7c9806503858
Ngubane, Thulani
d79a055c-ba37-419a-a4a6-c5f4c4531d4d
Darbes, Lynae A.
c3efdf20-68ff-44bf-bf90-acaf249b334e
Conroy, Amy A.
421432a6-0b7e-443a-82b7-e05877a1672f
Mcgrath, Nuala
b75c0232-24ec-443f-93a9-69e9e12dc961
van Rooyen, Heidi
19159681-0f8c-42da-8c8b-3001d4ada200
Hosegood, Vicky
c59a89d5-5edc-42dd-b282-f44458fd2993
Johnson, Mallory O.
8228e7a9-d94e-4cfb-bb0a-c922d33f2206
Fritz, Katherine
05c44089-1e99-46e1-9f75-d14532b8a9fd
Marr, Alexander
ca08ccd8-e29f-4ede-99d2-7c9806503858
Ngubane, Thulani
d79a055c-ba37-419a-a4a6-c5f4c4531d4d
Darbes, Lynae A.
c3efdf20-68ff-44bf-bf90-acaf249b334e

Conroy, Amy A., Mcgrath, Nuala, van Rooyen, Heidi, Hosegood, Vicky, Johnson, Mallory O., Fritz, Katherine, Marr, Alexander, Ngubane, Thulani and Darbes, Lynae A. (2016) Power and the association with relationship quality in South African couples: Implications for HIV/AIDS interventions. Social Science & Medicine, 153, 1-11. (doi:10.1016/j.socscimed.2016.01.035). (PMID:26859436)

Record type: Article

Abstract

Introduction: power imbalances within sexual relationships have significant implications for HIV prevention in sub-Saharan Africa. Little is known about how power influences the quality of a relationship, which could be an important pathway leading to healthy behavior around HIV/AIDS.

Methods: this paper uses data from 448 heterosexual couples (896 individuals) in rural KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa who completed baseline surveys from 2012 to 2014 as part of a couples-based HIV intervention trial. Using an actor-partner interdependence perspective, we assessed: (1) how both partners' perceptions of power influences their own (i.e., actor effect) and their partner's reports of relationship quality (i.e., partner effect); and (2) whether these associations differed by gender. We examined three constructs related to power (female power, male equitable gender norms, and shared power) and four domains of relationship quality (intimacy, trust, mutually constructive communication, and conflict).

Results: for actor effects, shared power was strongly and consistently associated with higher relationship quality across all four domains. The effect of shared power on trust, mutually constructive communication, and conflict were stronger for men than women. The findings for female power and male equitable gender norms were more mixed. Female power was positively associated with women's reports of trust and mutually constructive communication, but negatively associated with intimacy. Male equitable gender norms were positively associated with men's reports of mutually constructive communication. For partner effects, male equitable gender norms were positively associated with women's reports of intimacy and negatively associated with women's reports of conflict.

Conclusions: research and health interventions aiming to improving HIV-related behaviors should consider sources of shared power within couples and potential leverage points for empowerment at the couple level. Efforts solely focused on empowering women should also take the dyadic environment and men's perspectives into account to ensure positive relationship outcomes

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Accepted/In Press date: 22 January 2016
e-pub ahead of print date: 28 January 2016
Published date: March 2016
Organisations: Social Statistics & Demography

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 396371
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/396371
ISSN: 0277-9536
PURE UUID: 2f118555-57de-4fe7-825d-e4dd112c3aae
ORCID for Nuala Mcgrath: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-1039-0159
ORCID for Vicky Hosegood: ORCID iD orcid.org/0000-0002-2244-2518

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Date deposited: 06 Jun 2016 09:07
Last modified: 15 Mar 2024 03:46

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Contributors

Author: Amy A. Conroy
Author: Nuala Mcgrath ORCID iD
Author: Heidi van Rooyen
Author: Vicky Hosegood ORCID iD
Author: Mallory O. Johnson
Author: Katherine Fritz
Author: Alexander Marr
Author: Thulani Ngubane
Author: Lynae A. Darbes

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