Demography and Population Studies Programme, Schools of Public Health and Social Sciences, University of the Witwatersrand, 1 Jan Smuts Avenue, Braamfontein, Johannesburg, 2000, South Africa.
Department of Statistics and Demography, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Eswatini, Kwaluseni Campus, Kwaluseni, Eswatini.
Arch Sex Behav. 2021 Feb;50(2):601-614. doi: 10.1007/s10508-020-01770-3. Epub 2020 Jul 3.
A considerable number of married women in sub-Saharan African countries are childless and may be likely to engage in marital infidelity to avoid social stigma, economic insecurities, and other debilitating experience associated with being involuntarily childless. This study sought to investigate the relationship between involuntary childlessness and marital infidelity and how it may be moderated by women's educational attainment. Data were obtained from 23,847 women in their first union for at least 2 years and participated in the demographic and health surveys of five sub-Saharan African countries comprising Cameroon, Gabon, Lesotho, Liberia, and Sierra Leone. Data were analyzed using multivariate logistic regression, adjusted for socioeconomic, union, and partner characteristics. Involuntarily childless women in Cameroon (AOR: 2.34, 95% CI 1.62-3.39) and Sierra Leone (AOR: 2.22, 95% CI 1.42-3.49) were about two times more likely to engage in marital infidelity compared to non-childless married women. In Gabon, Lesotho, and Liberia, the odds of marital infidelity did not significantly differ between involuntarily childless and non-childless married women. Although involuntarily childless women with secondary or higher education reported higher levels of marital infidelity than non-childless women with a similar level of education, we found no statistical evidence in all the countries that the relationship between involuntary childlessness and marital infidelity was moderated by women's educational attainment. These findings suggest that involuntary childlessness is a critical factor potentially related to marital infidelity and may be an important target for intervention and prevention, particularly in settings with high levels of sexually transmitted infections.
撒哈拉以南非洲国家相当数量的已婚妇女没有孩子，她们可能会发生婚姻不忠行为，以避免社会耻辱、经济不安全和与非自愿不孕相关的其他衰弱经历。本研究旨在调查非自愿不孕与婚姻不忠之间的关系，以及女性教育程度如何对其产生调节作用。数据来自撒哈拉以南非洲五个国家（喀麦隆、加蓬、莱索托、利比里亚和塞拉利昂）的 23847 名至少有两年首次婚姻且参加人口与健康调查的妇女。数据使用多变量逻辑回归进行分析，调整了社会经济、婚姻和伴侣特征。与非不孕已婚妇女相比，喀麦隆（AOR：2.34，95%CI 1.62-3.39）和塞拉利昂（AOR：2.22，95%CI 1.42-3.49）的非自愿不孕妇女发生婚姻不忠的可能性大约高出两倍。在加蓬、莱索托和利比里亚，非自愿不孕和非不孕已婚妇女之间的婚姻不忠几率没有显著差异。尽管接受过中等或高等教育的非自愿不孕妇女比具有类似教育程度的非不孕妇女报告的婚姻不忠程度更高，但我们在所有国家都没有发现统计证据表明，非自愿不孕和婚姻不忠之间的关系受到女性教育程度的调节。这些发现表明，非自愿不孕是一个与婚姻不忠密切相关的关键因素，可能是干预和预防的重要目标，特别是在性传播感染水平较高的环境中。
