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. METHODS The data for this study were collected from 983 men aged 15 to 26 who participated in a 2-year community randomized controlled HIV prevention trial in the rural Eastern Cape. Multivariate Poisson models investigated the associations between baseline perpetration of IPV and fathering subsequent pregnancies, while controlling for age, number of sexual partners, socio-economic status, educational attainment, problematic alcohol use, exposure to the intervention, and time between interviews. RESULTS Of the men in this study, 16.5% (n = 189) had made a girlfriend pregnant over two years of follow up. In addition, 39.1% had perpetrated physical or sexual intimate partner violence and 24.3% had done so more than once. Men who at baseline had perpetrated IPV in the previous year had an increased incidence of fathering, for a first perpetration in that year IRR 1.67 (95% CI 1.14-2.44) and among those who had also been previously violent, IRR 1.97 (95% CI 1.31-2.94). Those who had ever been violent, but not in the past year, did not have an elevated incidence. The incidence among men who had ever perpetrated physical abuse was less elevated than among those who had perpetrated physical and sexual violence IRR 1.64 (95% CI 1.18-2.29) versus IRR 2.59 (95% CI 1.64-4.10) indicating a dose response. CONCLUSION Young men's perpetration of partner violence is an important predictor of subsequently fathering a pregnancy. The explanation may lie with South African hegemonic masculinity, which valorizes control of women and displays of heterosexuality and virility, and compromises women's reproductive choices.