South Africa has made major strides in the prevention and treatment of HIV since the early 2000’s. However, the HIV incidence among young people and persisting undesired pregnancies call for a renewed strategy and the involvement of young men. Evidence has shown that male involvement is key to achieving greater gender equality and improving sexual and reproductive health outcomes, yet little is known about young men’s perceptions of their roles and responsibilities in preventing undesired pregnancy and HIV/STI transmission.
This study sought to contribute to the small, but growing, body of research around young men’s perceptions of their roles and responsibilities in relation to contraceptive use, undesired pregnancy, and early fatherhood. These findings supported the work of the National Teenage Pregnancy Partnership - a coalition of diverse stakeholders interested in advancing sexual health and rights, especially for girls/adolescents and young women in South Africa.
This study adopted a primarily qualitative research methodology composed of a short demographic questionnaire, focus group discussions, and community mapping. We used snowball sampling to recruit a total sample of 75 young men aged 18-25 in three provinces, namely Limpopo, Gauteng, and Western Cape. Our findings revealed the persistent nature of sexual risk taking among young men in the form of multiple sexual relations and inconsistent condoms use. The results from the focus group discussions found a high level of knowledge (92%) about contraceptives but a gap in the application of this knowledge, as inconsistent contraceptive use and sexual risk taking was persistent among this group. Young men also believed that the responsibility for using contraceptives lay with young women.