Personal Beliefs and Social Norms Regarding the Sexual Exploitation of Girls in Age-Disparate Transactional Sexual Relationships in Brazil: A Mixed-Methods Study

"...findings reinforce the need to develop programs tailored to local understandings of ADTS [age-disparate transactional sex], targeting not only girls but also a wide range of actors. Interventions could also consider the structural factors acting in local and global contexts that promote or prevent ADTS."

In absolute numbers, Brazil occupies the fourth global position in number of girls married or co-habiting by 15 years of age. Previous research on child marriage in Brazil has shown that these unions often begin as transactional sex, which has been defined as the exchange of sexual favours or relationships for benefits such as material favours, gifts, and/or support in some form. This study explores the prevalence and dynamics of age-disparate transactional sex (ADTS) in Brazil, with the goal of providing contextualised recommendations to prevent ADTS by shedding light on the kind of social norms that support or undermine it.

This exploratory sequential mixed-methods study consisted first of a formative, qualitative phase to identify social norms and personal beliefs related to ADTS, which then informed the development of items for a quantitative survey. This survey was then applied in the quantitative phase to test the distribution of the items in the population and their associations with socio-demographic characteristics and participation in ADTS.

Specifically, the qualitative phase was conducted in three different favelas (informal urban, low-income communities) in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. These communities were selected because of their high level of vulnerability according to their score on the Social Vulnerability Index (SVI). In-depth interviews and focus group discussions using vignettes designed to elicit personal beliefs and social norms around ADTS were conducted with 130 participants, sampled by gender and community. Quantitative work consisted in questionnaires administered by gender-matched interviewers from July 27 to November 2 2018 in the homes of 412 residents of the study communities.

Four main themes arose from the convergent analysis of qualitative and quantitative datasets; here are some selected findings:

1. Prevalence and experience of ADTS: 45.9% of all participants believed that it was normal for men to get involved in sexual relationships with girls, and 48.3% expected their community members to also see the behaviour as normal. Among these, adolescents and young adults (independent of their sex) were the most likely to normalise ADTS relationships. Those with strong religious beliefs were less likely than those with weaker religious beliefs to accept it as normal, although even within the latter group, the majority thought that most or all of their community members would support ADTS (43.7% versus 55.1%, p-value = 0.021). Adults who considered their religion important were also less likely to have had sexual relationships with a minor (odds ratio (OR): 0.447, 95%CI: 0.233-0.859, p-value: 0.012). Men involved in drug trafficking were expected to be involved in ADTS, either as perpetrators engaging in ADTS or as the only members of the community who were capable of interfering to end these relationships. Fear seemed to limit girls' ability to leave or refuse entering into an ADTS relationship with a man - even more so if the man was connected to drug trafficking.
2. The role of the family and friends in ADTS: Within the family, mothers were exclusively held responsible for their daughters' involvement in ADTS, with most women assuming the role of sexual "educators" and "protectors" of girls to conform with what they perceived to be the expectations of other women in their community. For the men, their male friends and the women of the community were important reference groups to whom men were expected to "prove" their masculinity. Hypersexuality, exhibited by "conquering" young girls and having multiple sexual partners, was seen as a way of affirming themselves as "real men".
3. Men's responsibilities and motivations for ADTS: Participants normalised men's participation in ADTS as "normal" and expected. Tables 7 and 8 in the paper show participant responses regarding men's motivations for ADTS. Women were less likely than men to perceive community agreement that adult men manipulate their underage female partners (p-value < 0.001 in logistic regression).
4. Girls' responsibilities and motivations for ADTS: In general, and specifically among men, girls (and their families) were expected to be responsible for the occurrence of these relationships. Adolescents and respondents without important religious beliefs, 27.9% (p-value < 0.001) and 25.2% (p-value < 0.001), respectively, were more likely to believe that a girl with a developed body has the maturity to make decisions about her sexual partners and relations. Men more frequently believed that if a girl responds positively to the advances of a man on the street, or if she accepts presents or protection from a man, then she should have sex with him.

The quantitative data supported the qualitative finding that ADTS was normalised in these communities, with a quarter of men reporting they had participated in transactional sex, 27.3% of the adult men reporting having had sex with minors, and about half of women reporting having had sex with adults while they were still minors. The researchers note that the prevalence of these behaviours may have been underestimated for multiple reasons.

In reflecting on the findings, the researchers note, for example, that the "sex for basic needs" paradigm common in the literature tends to portray adolescents involved in ADTS as vulnerable victims. However, in the present study, community members view girls as the main agents responsible for ADTS, who seek these relationships not just to meet basic needs but to ascend socially. This finding is in line with the "girls as agents" view of transactional sex, which has also been reported in sub-Saharan Africa. Although adolescents in the present study were more likely to recognise the benefits that men receive from ADTS and their role as active participants in these relationships, adolescents also more clearly recognised the agency of girls. Men viewed girls as having multiple motivations for and gaining more benefits from engaging in ADTS.

The results also describe a lack of awareness of community, structural, and social factors driving ADTS, and an over emphasis on individual risk factors, reinforcing the perception of ADTS as an issue pertaining to the private sphere. Interventions that focus on girls as responsible for ADTS run the risk of overlooking the role of communities, social norms, and structural conditions that contribute to the practice.

Noting the study's finding that both the personal beliefs and social norms that promote ADTS were built upon concepts of hegemonic masculinity, the researchers suggest that interventions identify and consider the characteristics of masculine identity in communities; design of approaches should reflect the fact that these gender norms influence both men and women. "[P]ublic health interventions that do not problematize masculine role expectations in their behaviour change models can be limited in their ability to promote change and may even propagate harmful norms..."

In conclusion, this study reinforces:

• "the need to employ solutions which question the individualist character of ADTS, consider a wider range of actors as subjects and protagonists of interventions, and the collective forces acting in local and global contexts promoting or preventing ADTS";
• "the importance of community-based education to target entrenched norms and values of males and females that support gender inequality and violence";
• "the importance of involving men, boys and communities in violence prevention, e.g. mentoring, community engagement and bystander programmes, along with programmes expanding meaningful educational and professional opportunities for girls"; and
• the need for further research to "consider the social norms around ADTS in different communities within and beyond the Global South, as well as validate an instrument for evaluating the impact of interventions on social norms."