Citation

Stern E, Heise L. Cult. Health Sex. 2019; 21(8): 867-882.

Affiliation

Population, Family and Reproductive Health, Johns Hopkins School of Public Health and Johns Hopkins School of Nursing , Baltimore , MD , USA.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2019, Informa - Taylor and Francis Group)

DOI

10.1080/13691058.2018.1521991

PMID

30547723

Abstract

Sexual coercion among married or cohabitating couples is a complex phenomenon with few effective strategies for prevention. This paper explores sexual coercion among couples from rural Rwanda who participated in Indashyikirwa, a 4-year intimate partner violence prevention programme that included a 5-month couples curriculum to promote equalitarian, non-violent relationships. Drawing on three rounds of longitudinal qualitative interviews with partners from 14 couples (28 individuals), this paper explores processes of change in experiences and conceptualisations of coerced sex over the course of the intervention and 1 year after. The data were analysed using thematic and dyadic analysis. Both partners of couples reported significant changes in their sexual relationship, including reduced experiences of coerced sex, greater communication about sex and increased acceptability for women to initiate sex. Men and women became more willing to disclose sexual coercion over the course of the interviews, both current and past experiences, and couples' accounts generally became more concordant.

FINDINGS yield insights to inform programming to prevent coerced sex among spouses. These include grounding discussion of sexual coercion in an analysis of gendered power and norms, reflecting on the consequences of broader forms of sexual coercion and employing a benefits-driven, skills-based approach.

Language: en

Keywords

Couples; Rwanda; gender norms; prevention programme; sexual coercion