Liberty Eaton - Academia.edu (original) (raw)

Maastricht University, Faculty of Health Medicine and Life sciences

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Papers by Liberty Eaton

Social Science & Medicine, 2003

A growing body of evidence points to the complexity of sexual behaviour. HIV risk behaviour is in... more A growing body of evidence points to the complexity of sexual behaviour. HIV risk behaviour is influenced by factors at three levels: within the person, within the proximal context (interpersonal relationships and physical and organisational environment) and within the distal context (culture and structural factors). This paper presents the findings of a review of research on the factors promoting and perpetuating unsafe sexual behaviour in South African youth. Papers included in the review were dated between 1990 and 2000 and addressed sexual behaviour of youth between the ages of 14 and 35 years. Both published works and unpublished reports and dissertations/theses were included. The review concluded that at least 50% of young people are sexually active by the age of 16 years; the majority of school students who had ever experienced sexual intercourse reported at the most one partner in the previous year, with a persistent minority of between 1% and 5% of females and 10-25% of males having more than four partners per year; and between 50% and 60% of sexually active youth report never using condoms. In terms of explanations for unsafe sexual behaviour among South African youth, the findings illustrate the powerful impact of the proximal and distal contexts, and in particular, the pervasive effect of poverty and social norms that perpetuate women's subordination within sexual relationships. Personal factors and the proximal and distal contexts interact to encourage HIV risk behaviour in ways that are not fully captured by social-cognitive models. The findings will be of interest to researchers and practitioners in the fields of adolescent sexual behaviour and HIV prevention in developing countries. r

Political Psychology, Dec 1, 2010

A Random Digit Dialing survey (n= 794) examined the interracial contact experiences and racial at... more A Random Digit Dialing survey (n= 794) examined the interracial contact experiences and racial attitudes of White South Africans. The survey measured racial attitudes not only in terms of individuals' prejudice, but also in terms of their perceptions of group threat, perceived injustice, and support for various government policies designed to rectify the legacy of apartheid. The results indicated that the frequency and quality of interracial contact predicted Whites' support for both race compensatory and race preferential policies of ...

European Journal of Social Psychology, Feb 1, 2011

Policies and programs designed to challenge the effects of racial discrimination (such as affirma... more Policies and programs designed to challenge the effects of racial discrimination (such as affirmative action) are hotly contested. Factors which have been proposed to explain opposition to these policies include racial prejudice, group threat and self-interest, and perceptions of intergroup justice. We report the results of two random national telephone surveys which tested a theoretically based model of the predictors of policy support in post-apartheid South Africa. The results provided limited support for Blumer's ...

Journal of Social Issues, Jun 1, 2010

8. Discussion A random digit dialing survey (N= 596) investigated the relationship between quanti... more 8. Discussion A random digit dialing survey (N= 596) investigated the relationship between quantity and quality of interracial contact and Black South Africans' perceptions of racial discrimination in postapartheid society. Results showed that harmonious contact was associated with lower levels of perceived collective discrimination, an effect that was mediated by racial attitudes and personal experiences of racial discrimination. The implications of the survey's findings are discussed in relation to two models of social ...