Gender Inequality and Traditional Social Norms as Predictors of Risky Sex among Men in the North Indian States of Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand: Quantitative and Qualitative Analyses

Quantitative data in this mixed-methods study from the north Indian states of Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand were used from the National Family Health Survey (NFHS-3), to examine the relationship between gender equality attitudes and nonmarital sex among married (n=7,406) and unmarried (n=4,834) men. Gender equality predictors were developed based on men’s attitudes toward wife-beating, family violence history, and views on whether women had the right to refuse sex, make household decisions and have financial autonomy. Qualitative data among thirty-one men were analyzed to explore how men’s gender attitudes and expressed social norms were related to their non-marital sex. Quantitative methods included descriptive analyses and logistic regression modeling for married and unmarried men, to explore the effect of gender equality predictors on non-marital sex. Qualitative analyses included inductive coding of interviews to generate codes associated with themes describing non-marital sex. Themes were collapsed across interviews to observe theme density and to explore how men’s gender-related attitudes and expressed social norms were related to their non-marital sex. Quantitative results indicated that men who were more likely to report non-marital