a Department of Medicine , Brown University , Providence , RI , USA.
b Anthropology , George Washington University , Washington , DC , USA.
SAHARA J. 2019 Dec;16(1):10-24. doi: 10.1080/17290376.2019.1604254.
Couple relationship functioning impacts individual health and well-being, including HIV risk, but scant research has focused on emic understandings of relationship quality in African populations. We explored relationship quality and satisfaction in Eswatini (formerly Swaziland) using data from 148 in-depth interviews (117 life-course interviews with 28 adults and 31 interviews with 29 marriage counselors and their clients) and 4 focus group discussions. Love, respect, honesty, trust, communication, sexual satisfaction, and sexual faithfulness emerged as the most salient characteristics of good relationships, with both men and women emphasising love and respect as being most important. Participants desired relationships characterised by such qualities but reported relationship threats in the areas of trust, honesty, and sexual faithfulness. The dimensions of relationship quality identified by this study are consistent with research from other contexts, suggesting cross-cultural similarities in conceptions of a good relationship. Some relationship constructs, particularly respect, may be more salient in a Swazi context.
夫妻关系的功能会影响个人的健康和幸福，包括艾滋病毒感染风险，但很少有研究关注非洲人群中关系质量的本土理解。我们使用来自 148 次深入访谈（28 名成年人的 117 次生活历程访谈和 29 名婚姻顾问及其客户的 31 次访谈）和 4 次焦点小组讨论的数据，探讨了斯威士兰（前称斯威士兰）的关系质量和满意度。爱、尊重、诚实、信任、沟通、性满足和性忠诚是良好关系最突出的特征，男性和女性都强调爱和尊重最重要。参与者希望关系具有这些品质，但报告了在信任、诚实和性忠诚方面存在关系威胁。这项研究确定的关系质量维度与来自其他背景的研究一致，表明在良好关系的概念上存在跨文化的相似性。一些关系结构，特别是尊重，在斯威士兰的背景下可能更为突出。
