Is hope associated with HIV-acquisition risk and intimate partner violence amongst young women and men? A cross-sectional study in urban informal settlements in South Africa

Hope is a concept that may mediate between the structural constraints people live under and their HIV-acquisition risk behaviours/experiences. Drawing on data collected as the baseline for an intervention trial between September 2015 and September 2016, among young (18–30-year-old), out-of-school women and men in urban informal settlements in Durban, South Africa, we assess whether hope, assessed by the Snyder Hope Scale, is associated with HIV-risk behaviours/experiences. 677 women (35.5%; 33.7%; 30.9%; low, medium, and high hope scores respectively) and 668 men (40.6%; 32.8%; 26.7%; low, medium, and high hope scores respectively) were included. Among women, adjusted analyses showed high levels of hope, compared to low levels, were associated with greater modern contraceptive use (aOR1.57, 1.04–2.37). For men, medium or high levels of hope, compared to low levels, were associated with reduced physical and/or sexual IPV perpetration (med: aOR0.55, 0.38–0.81, high: 0.38, 0.25–0.57), emotional IPV perpetration (med: aOR0.54, 0.36–0.80, high: aOR0.62, 0.41–0.94) and transactional sex (med: 0.57, 0.38–0.84, high: aOR0.57, 0.39–0.86) respectively. For men, hope potentially captured a pathway between an individual’s structural context and their HIV-risk behaviour. Yet this was not the case for women. It may be the Snyder Hope Scale does not adequately capture localised meanings of hope.