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African Journal of Reproductive Health
Women's Health and Action Research Centre
ISSN: 1118-4841
Vol. 8, Num. 2, 2004, pp. 13-37
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African Journal of Reproductive Health, Vol. 8, No. 2, Aug, 2004 pp.
13-37
REVIEW ARTICLE
Young People's Relationships with Sugar Daddies and Sugar
Mummies: What do We Know and What do We Need to Know?
Barthelemy Kuate-Defo
Correspondence: Professor Barthelemy Kuate-Defo, University
of Montreal's Hospitals-Clinics (CHUM) Research Center & Director, PRONUSTIC
Research Laboratory, University of Montreal, C.P. 6128 Succursale Centre-Ville,
Montreal QC H4A 2L2, Canada. Tel: (514) 343-7611; Fax: (514) 343-2309; Email:
barthelemy.kuate.defo@umontreal.ca
Code Number: rh04023
Abstract
This paper critically synthesises available research that
examines young people's relationships with sugar daddies and mummies. It considers
definitional, measurement and analytical issues involved in assessing these
relationships, their magnitude, patterns, determinants and consequences. The
review compares and contrasts the experiences of young people in a variety
of settings in developing countries versus developed countries, and identifies
key associated factors perpetuating those relationships. The implications of
this endeavour for data needs and future research and intervention studies
targeted at promoting young people's health and well being are discussed within
the contexts of globalisation and localisation and recommendations for dealing
with these experiences. (Afr J Reprod Health 2004; 8[2]:13-37)
Key Words: Sugar daddies/mummies, young
people, sexual and reproductive health, STI, HIV/AIDS
Résumé
Rapports des jeunes gens avec leurs vieux protecteurs et
leurs vieilles protectrices: que savons-nous et que faut-il savoir? Cet
article fait, des façon critique, la synthèse de la recherche
disponible sur les études des rapports des jeunes gens avec leurs
vieux protecteurs et vieilles protectrices. Il étudie les questions
concernant les définitions, les mesures et les analyses impliquées
dans l'évaluation de ces rapports, leur ampleur, leurs modes, leurs
déterminants et leurs conséquences. L'étude fait la
comparaison et le contraste des expériences des jeunes gens dans des
cadres divers dans les pays en voie de développement par rapport aux
pays développés. Elle identifie en même temps les facteurs
associés clé qui perpectuent ces rapports-là. L'étude
discute les implications de cet effort pour les banques de données
et pour les études de recherches et d'intervention futures qui visent
la promotion de la santé et du bien-être des jeunes gens dans
le contexte de la mondialisation et de la localisation et des recommendations
qui permettront de s'occuper de ces expériences. (Rev Afr Santé Reprod 2004;
8[2]:13-37)
Introduction
There is a great deal of research on cross-generational, intra-generational
and inter-generational sexual relationships both in developed and developing
countries.1-5 These relationships can be considered broadly as relationships
within and across generational configurations (adolescence, youthhood, adulthood,
midlife and elderly). Across countries, societies and cultures in human history,
such relationships have been of heterosexual or homosexual nature.2,3,6 They
may be free, transactional, exploitative, coercive or unlawful. Many theories
exist on human sexuality, motives, associated factors and consequences of sexual
activity.7-10 Available evidence suggests that young people in many
countries are exploited or attempt to take advantage of such relationships
to meet their basic needs, upscale their living standing and outlook among
peers, and/or get money, clothes, school fees, gifts and various favours in
return for sexual relationships of some duration. The legal provisions surrounding
sexual relationships in various countries have led to their labelling in various
ways including the `sugar daddy' or `sugar mummy' practice, boyfriend and girlfriend
relationships, dating, or criminal juvenile prostitution.11-15 These
relationships often involve an exchange, an element in social and/or sexual
relationships common in all cultures.16
While cross-generational sexual relationships have been in
existence in the history of mankind, their extent with respect to sexual behaviours
associated with the `sugar daddy' or `sugar mummy' practice deserves a review
and update. This is partly due to the current context of emerging threats to
adolescent reproductive health confronting the sexually transmitted infections
(STIs), human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) infection and AIDS mortality affecting
primarily young people and the most productive segments of populations worldwide.17 Precocious
experiences with reproductive health outcomes such as sexual debut and pregnancy
with the risks
associated with them, including abortions
and sexually transmitted infections and the increase
in HIV infection remain of great concern to policymakers, researchers, planners
and the international community. The individual,
familial, household, neighbourhood, community,
regional, national and international contexts and
factors quite often influence those outcomes. Indeed,
a growing body of evidence points to the complexity of sexual behaviour among
young people in both developed and developing
countries.3,18-20
The purpose of this paper is to review existing research
on factors promoting and perpetuating unsafe sexual behaviour in young people
with special attention to their relationships with sugar daddies or mummies.
It is of paramount importance to stress that while most studies of `sugar daddies'
and `sugar mummies' in this review are from Africa, it does not mean that there
are no published studies involving cross-generational transactional sex of
similar causes and consequences that occur in developed and developing countries
of other continents. It synthesises available research that explores young
people's relationships with sugar daddies and sugar mummies, with cautionary
notes regarding definitional, conceptual and measurement issues inherent in
current research in this area and the need for more rigorous and methodologically
sound investigation on the nature, scope, magnitude, features and risk/protective
factors of the sugar daddy/mummy practice. It documents associated factors
and consequences of these relationships for young people, particularly the
extent to which force, coercion and power differentials shape the relationships.
The study compares and contrasts the experiences of young people in a variety
of settings in developing and developed countries within the broader context
of non-consensual sexual experiences of young people around the world and makes
some recommendations for dealing with these experiences.
The remainder of the paper is organised into subsections that
address (i) issues of meaning, measurement and prevalence of young people's
relationships with older people and the practice of `sugar daddy' and `sugar
mummy' in particular; (ii) the contexts and associated factors involved in
these relationships; (iii) the major consequences of such relationships; and
(iv) evidence concerning these relationships and
their implications.
Meaning and Measurement of Young People's Relationships
with Sugar Daddies and Sugar Mamas
Strategy for the Review and Definition of the Practice
of Sugar Daddy and Sugar Mummy
A literature search was carried out on Medline, Popline, PubMed,
google and many search engines available on the WWW, using the labels associating
young people's relationships with older people and involving monetary or non-monetary
incentives or rewards. Key words used in the search included `sugar daddy',
`sugar daddies', `sugar papa', `sugar papas', `sugar poppy' , `sugar poppies',
`sugar mommy', `sugar mommies', `sugar mummy', `sugar mummies', `sugar mama',
`sugar mamas'. In this paper, these key words will be used interchangeably.
The search was repeated using authors known to have published studies concerned
with such relationships, as well as all journals dealing with reproductive
health, sexual behaviour, sexuality and economics of sex. The final selection
of studies was based on two criteria: (i) their publication in peer-reviewed
journals; and (ii) for unpublished manuscript or working papers, their publication
or author's affiliation with a credible institution. Literature was also trawled
for data presentation and method of inquiry.
In literature, a sugar daddy (respectively a sugar mummy)
is the name given to elder men (respectively elder women) having sexual relationships
with young girls (respectively
young boys) in exchange for money
and/or material goods, drinks, gifts, clothes and favourable treatment including
favours in many aspects of life such as education, employment and payment of
tuition fees, financial
support for living costs, and other kinds of
support. More recently, it has been noted that in
some settings such relationships occur in the
belief that the young people are free from HIV.
Some characterisation of this practice is emerging from literature,
which suggests that the practices of `sugar daddy', `sugar mama' and the behaviours
of `sugar daddy' girls and `sugar mama' boys is at least in part influenced
by an increasingly materialistic society in the context of globalisation. As
a symbol of their wealth and prosperity, sugar daddies and sugar mommies are
often characterised in focus group discussions with adolescents by assets-related
labels and nick names including `4 Cs' (i.e., car, cellular phone, cash and
clothes) in Swaziland,21 `sponsors' in Ghana,22 Cameroon23 or
Swaziland24 and `buzi' in Tanzania.25 Other terms may
exist in other parts of the world without linking them to the practice of `sugar
daddy' and `sugar mommy' as in Africa, a point rightly stressed by Jejeebhoy
and Bott.26 A South African NGO volunteer noted that schoolgirls
see older wealthier men with the `3e Cs' as an avenue where they will be able
to attain material goods.27
Meaning and Measurement of the Practice
of `Sugar Daddy' and `Sugar Mummy'
Definition and specificity issues
The convention on the Rights of the Child defines children
as every human being under the age of 18 years unless, under the law applicable
to the child, majority is attained earlier.28 Moreover, Human Rights
Watch considers all persons under age 18 to be children, and in many countries
around the world, minors are considered to be children under age 18. The problems
associated with the practice of `sugar daddy' and `sugar
mummy' stem from the fact that an
accurate account for the events and specific
features defining such practice and how it differs
from child sexual abuse or other unacceptable
forms of exploitation of children at work around
the world are lacking in all studies reviewed.
Slavery, debt bondage, trafficking, sexual exploitation,
use of children in the drug trade and in armed
conflict as well as hazardous work are all defined as
`Worst Forms of Child Labour' under the
International Labour Office (ILO)'s International
Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour.
It is useful to elicit information on the various components
of these relationships, the age of the young person and his/her partner's age
at the time of initiating the sexual relationship, the circumstances under
which they have encounters and the young person's feelings and expectations
toward the partner. Other useful information includes the extent of multi-partnership,
the duration of the relationship and whether there is promise of marriage or
some form of stable union. There is still considerable gap in knowledge concerning
the variety of forms and conditions under which young people engage in sexual
activities with older people around the world, especially their relationships
with sugar daddies or sugar mommies. This is in part because studies of the
practice of sugar daddies or sugar mamas are generally based on reports from
young people themselves or are based on broadly asked questions about transaction
(financial or in kind) involved, or favours received in the context of these
sexual relationships.
In defining sugar daddies or mummies, what `older men' or
`older women' means varies from one study to the other. The notion is often
surmised both for the researcher and respondents, and there is no standard
age difference between partners in age mixing sexual relationships beyond which
a relationship between a younger and older person can be treated as a sugar
daddy or sugar mummy relationship. To date, it is left for speculation whether
the content and nature of
the information collected about the
sexual relationships refer to the same construct. No
study, to our knowledge, has looked at these
relationships focusing on direct reports from older men's
and women's that are matched with reports from young people within the same setting
and its relevant socio-economic and cultural nuances. For
instance, while available studies all found that a
substantial proportion of sugar daddies and mummies
were married and even have many children and/or wives, according to young people's
reports, the marital status of men and women who have affairs with young people
is difficult to
establish solely from the young people's accounts or
from cross-sectional data lacking a retrospective
event-history approach. This is partly because
young people rarely, if ever, inquire about the
marital status of their sugar daddies or mummies
and even when they do, their sexual partner might not reveal the truth to them.
Missing length of relationships
The duration of the sexual relationships between young and
older people are virtually inexistent in literature, and in rare cases where
some infor-mation vaguely exist about the length of such relationships, it
tends to show stable pattern with relationships being quite regular (involving
up to three sexual contacts with their partners weekly) and lasting even one
year or more. In Tanzania, for instance, four types of relationships in young
girls' relationships with their sexual partners in Dar es Salaam have been
identified.25,29 The first, known as rafiki, concerns a boyfriend
with whom the young girl has regular sexual contacts. This type appears to
be receiving more social acceptance and recognition than the second type, termed mshikaji
wa muda, which refers to a temporary partner with whom sexual contacts
are short-termed but nonetheless often involving acquisition of property, money
and gifts in exchange for sexual favour. The third type comprises men with
whom contact is one-time or sporadic. The fourth type, termed mpenzi,
involves a sugar daddy sexual partner with
whom a young girl has a love relationship and even
hopes to marry. In all these types of relationships,
girls expect to trade in their sexual services in
exchange for goods and/or money including food, underwear, clothes, soap, cream,
pocket
money, rent payment, school fees and/or textbooks.
Non-consensual sex, safe sexual self-determination and
unlawful sex
One of the fundamental issues that deserve attention in studying
the relationships between younger people and their older counterparts is the
extent of coercion, sexual self-determination and unlawfulness of the relationships.
It is unknown from existing studies the extent of sexual/physical abuse or
sexual/physical assault of young people of any kind in those relationships.
I consider sexual abuse to involve forcing a young person to take part in sexual
activities, whether the young individual is aware of what is happening or not,
whether it is perpetuated by an older man or woman, and the extent to which
sexual abuse and consensual sexual activity may have co-existed during the
course of these relationships. At issue is the extent of coercion in these
sexual relationships and whether the sexual intercourse is without any form
of protection (notably barrier methods) from pregnancy or sexually transmitted
infections including HIV. Given that gender inequalities are at the core of
the spread of the AIDS epidemic, gender issues have to be systematically addressed
in any study of such relationships in order to devise better prevention strategies
and develop an effective strategy to tackle unequal relations between men and
women, which are the kernel of the spread of the epidemic. Unfortunately, the
fact that governments as well as non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and
United Nations agencies are sectorialised, and that there is frequently little
coordination among sectors at both central and field levels, creates a significant
obstacle for addressing a cross-sectoral issue such as gender in a systemic
way.
Another measurement issue in the relationships between young
and older people is the extent and nature of their exploitative features and
whether it is fortuitous, sporadic, short-term or permanent. Furthermore, existing
studies do not always allow a formal distinction between sexual behaviours
involved in relationships with sugar daddy or sugar mama from sexual behaviours
associated with prostitution or other forms of sexual relations for which sexual
favour are traded for something material or financial by forcing the victim,
or willingly with a consenting partner.
Survey and studies on relationships between younger and older
people in view of teasing out the extent of the practice measuring the `sugar
daddy' or `sugar mama' should also attempt to pinpoint whether the partner
would like to marry or have a child with the young person and if the partners
had other sexual encounters at the time of their relationships, and if each
partner would have continued the relationship without material or financial
benefits. It is not known from available studies how young people interpret
their relationships with older people and vice versa. Because of gender power
differentials and socio-cultural norms and practices influencing such relationship
in different societies, existing research has not yet been able to capture
some of these nuances so as to provide a better picture of the young people's
voices and situations contrasted with those of their older partners. Clearly,
people engage in sexual relationships for numerous reasons including love,
affection, pleasure, conformity, recognition, competition, power, dominance,
submission, stress reduction, prestige, procreation, material and financial
exchange and benefits, companionship, and possibly others.30,31 Therefore,
knowledge, understanding and prediction of any dimension of sexual behaviours
are extremely complex in part because of some intimate and private aspects
of such behaviours. Care should be taken to be as specific as possible in characterising
them.
The scope and content of young people's relationships with
older men and the transaction involved, the role that these men play in young
girls' lives, the use of contraceptive methods and the degree of male involvement
in the girls' decision-making process and choices are not addressed in the
handful of available studies. For instance, several studies have shown that
young males and females engage in sex with partners of various ages and degree
of intimacy including friends, sugar daddies or sugar mummies, aunties and
casual strangers in settings as diverse
as Nairobi (Kenya),32 Yaounde
(Cameroon),33 Dar es
Salaam,25 Dodowa (Ghana),22 Trinidad
and Tobago,34 Zambia,35 Sweden,11 Jamaica,12 South
Africa,36 Tanzania,13 Mumbai City
(India),37 Quezon City in the
Philippines38 and Korea.39 Such age mixing sexual relationships
usually take place between young people and people of other age groups in exchange
for assistance for economic survival via (e.g., via money and fulfilment of basic
needs) favours in educational achievement and/or job opportunities and various
gifts
and commodities that will boost their status among their youth peers.
From a legal standpoint, criminal law is the strongest tool
a country has in dealing with or as a deterrent to socially or morally reprehensible
sexual behaviours including, but not limited to, child or minor sexual abuse
or sexual exploitation. Such law should specify the age limit of pro-tection
and who is a child, a minor or juvenile under legal protection from abuse or
exploitation. If the age limit is set too high, the law can become at odd with
the need of adolescents for sexual liberty, and instead of being a means of
protection may become a threat to an individual's capacity to sexual self-determination.
Because of this, a number of countries have legislations regarding the minimal
age limits for sexual relationships, seduction, including but limited to monetary
exchange with/without sexual coercion, sexual consent and marriage.14,15,40 In
all studies of sexual relationships involving
adolescents and their peers or older
people reviewed in developing countries of Africa,
Latin America and Asia as well as in developed
countries,4,5,11-13,15,24 the absence of reference to such age for
the young people as well as the lack of information on age of the older partner
with whom sexual relationships involving exchange of financial or non-monetary
nature took place constitute one of the main drawbacks. In all countries, the
minimal legal age at experiencing these sexual events for girls is lower than
or equal to that of boys. It is worth noting that legal age at marriage, even
where it exists, rarely corresponds to the actual age at which sexual initiation
or entry into union occurs. For example, in Cameroon, where the minimum legal
age at marriage is 15 years and 18 years for women and men respectively, 22.6%
of women aged 15-49 years in 1998 reported that they entered their first union
by age 15.41 One way to start formalising the features of a sugar
daddy or sugar mama is to consider some threshold, below or above which sexual
relationships between two individuals fall within the context of this type. One
entry point can be to situate sexual relation-ships in relation to (a) legal
age at marriage; (b) socio-economic and demographic attributes of the older man
or woman; (c) financial status of the older man or woman; (d) multifaceted power
relationships involved; and (e) legal, religious or moral codes (if any) governing
sexual relationships and the extent to which they are enforced. For instance,
adolescent girls' preco-cious sexual debut, unintended pregnancies, induced abortions
and deteriorating sexual and reproductive health are often associated with the
fact that young girls are objects of
older men's choices.
Does marital status matter in the timing and sequencing
of exchange in sexual relationships?
Existing studies rarely pay attention to the marital status
of young people and their sugar daddies or mummies. This omission makes it
difficult to
differentiate relationships between younger
and older people who are unmarried and are
`dating' with a possibility of forming a union, as
opposed to older people who are married and are
involving in exploitative relationships with the
young basically for sexual favours. Taking into
account the marital status of those involved in
these relationships is important because of its ramifications regarding the living
arrangements and visit patterns between the young person
and his/her older partner. Another issue concerns
the timing and sequencing of sexual relationships
and of money/gift/favours received or exchanged between the young and older person.
Does such reception/exchange occur before or after each sexual relationship?
If one partner or both
of them are married, how much information about this relationship is filtered
to their husband or wife? These are some fundamental questions that must be
considered in studies on the practice
of sugar daddy/mummy.
Without being exhaustive, I have highlighted some definitional,
measurement and analytical problems that make the quality of and comparisons
across studies at best conjectural. While many studies have tended to extrapolate
findings from localised studies and groups of the populations in specific settings
to the general urban/rural, regional or national environments of countries
where these studies have been conducted, there is extreme caution to be exercised
in such generalisations. First of all, consensual or non-consensual sexual
relationship across generations (younger and older people) is a difficult area
to study because its representation and nuances are greatly influenced by the
individual and its family and community, the society, the legal and judiciary
systems and various norms and practices tolerated or discouraged by the various
levels of nesting of individuals. Hence, qualifying the sexual relationships
between younger and older people is complicated by the multiple forms they
take and contexts in which they occur in different societies of the developed
and developing countries. Second, there
is considerable overlap between various forms of sexual encounters. It has been
shown that in terms of explanations for unsafe sexual behaviour among youth,
there is a powerful impact of
the proximal and distal contexts (as opposed to individual factors), and in particular
the pervasive effect of poverty and social norms that perpetuate women's subordination
within
sexual relationships.42 These are important issues with distinct implications
for the reproductive health of young people and the type of interventions and
legal provisions that may be required to protect their rights and their life
prospects.
How Good is the Evidence Regarding the Prevalence and Magnitude
of the Practice of Sugar Daddy and Sugar Mummy?
There is no doubt that sexual behaviours that amount to the
practice of sugar daddy/mummy is as old as the existence of mankind, to the
extent that it portrays young people engaging in sexual relationships with
older persons along with associated transactions and exchanges. Indeed, many
countries and international organisations have enacted legislations and international
conventions to protect minors and juveniles seduced by and/or engaged in sexual
relationships with older and/or wealthy older people in part in response to
the existence of that practice around the world.14,15,21 There are
also inherent difficulties associated with measurement of relations and interactions
among individuals. Measuring relations poses practical problems, which are
not unsolvable but are more easily addressed through methods such as in-depth
qualitative methods followed by structured quantitative surveys, which are
inexistent in current literature. This makes comparisons and trends assessment
impossible. In addition, few of the available studies are grounded on empirically
sound evidence. Another measurement difficulty arises from the fact that
changes in gender relations are only
possible through a process, which takes place in the
long term, or at the very least in the medium
term, but in any case usually longer than the span
of most encounters between younger and older people often treated as `sugar daddies'
or
`sugar mamas' irrespective of the duration of the relationships.
Recent evidence of this practice around the world in both
developed and developing countries4,11-15,21,26,43 point to their
continuing existence despite scanty evidence on its prevalence over time and
space. Yet, how to situate the boundaries of events defining the practice of
`sugar daddy' and `sugar mummy' compared to other sexual and reproductive health
events such as coerced sex, rape, sexual harassment, and so forth. There is
a lot of misclassification of events defining these phenomena and, therefore,
interpreting some of the available evidence concerning `sugar daddy' or `sugar
mama' as an indication of a `common phenomenon' as suggested in some quarters4 is
misleading. Therefore, the extent to which the `sugar daddy' or `sugar mama'
practice as characterised in literature on this practice since the 1980s3,11-13,25,33,36,44,45 is
of recent origin. How widespread it is over time and space is marred by shortcomings
ranging from a lack of definition of `older men' or `older women' versus young
men or women to the form, duration and content of the relationships between
younger and older people within socially or legally sanctioned norms and provisions.
Evidence regarding the prevalence of `sugar daddy' and `sugar
mummy' practices is at best conjectural from available studies, in part because
of problems in data quality and methodologies, as well as a lack of a gold
standard age range given the country-specific minimum legal age of sexual relationships
(if any). There seems to be a great degree of variability across and within
countries regarding age mixing and the nature of sexual activity of adolescents,
young and older
people, as documented in a number of
studies conducted in Africa and elsewhere about
age mixing in sexual relationships and the extent
of transactions between partners during the course of such
relationships.4,7,46 Görgen and
colleagues47 noted in their study of sexual partners among 3603 unmarried
men and women aged 15-24 years in Africa using both quantitative and qualitative
methodologies that the majority of relationships were among youths (e.g., pupil
with pupil, apprentice with apprentice, and apprentice with pupil). Younger women
tended to have a partner of their own social group while older women generally
had a relationship with a wealthy man. According to the explanations provided
in the focus groups, relationship with an older partner is not the preferred
choice for young people. Young women accept a few years age difference, but they
do not want their partner to be much older, for fear that such a relationship
will endanger their health, destroy their youth and contribute to early aging.
Young men try to avoid contact with older women. They believe that a relationship
with an older woman makes a young man grow old or causes diseases, or even an
early death, while it rejuvenates the woman and makes her more beautiful. Participants
observed that it is often difficult to refuse an offer from an older woman especially
if she is a member of one's family (e.g., a sister-in-law).
There are no data on the prevalence of this practice, not
only because no quantitative survey has been designed with the aim of measuring
and analysing it with the practices and behaviours it entails, but also because
the few existing studies lack methodological foundations that can lead to testable
hypotheses. Hence, it is not possible to situate these practices vis-à-vis
other sexual behaviours. While there is no doubt that behavi-ours embodied
in the `sugar daddy' or `sugar mummy' practice exist in Africa and elsewhere
around the world, the methodological and analytical approaches and the ensuing
evidence on sugar daddies and sugar mummies in African
settings is often anecdotal, media-driven
and based on studies with major flaws and
misleading conclusions. This is in contrast to some
rigorous studies that have been conducted in countries
like Jamaica12 and
Tanzania,13 which attempt to capture all forms of sexual behaviours
and aspects of the relationships involving adolescents, within which one can
calibrate the place of the `sugar daddy' and `sugar mommy' practice, since such
practice cannot be assessed in isolation and without taking into account competing
alternatives.
Young People's Relationships with Sugar Daddies and Sugar
Mama: Associated Factors
Non-consensual and consensual sexual relationships between
young people and older individuals called `sugar daddies' or `sugar mamas'
are influenced by factors operating at several levels including individual,
family, community, neighbourhood, province, region within a country, and by
the international context of globalisation. Individuals engage in such sexual
behaviours for a variety of motives including procreation, love and affection,
pleasure, entertainment, conformity, recognition, competition, power, domination,
submission, self-determination, stress reduction, financial security, favours,
money and presents. These motives are usually age-dependent and are greatly
influenced by individual attributes, conditions, life options and opportunities.
Examined in this paper are the emerging factors associated with young people's
relationships with sugar daddies and sugar mommies, but those correlates remain
tentative and should be taken with great caution given data and methodological
shortcomings inherent in most studies available on this topic.
Sexual Partner Age Preferences
A number of studies on cross-generational sexual relationships
with/without financial or material transactions have documented a wide range
of
age gap between sexual partners, varying from
a couple of years to over 25 years around the
world.1-3,11,12,26,48 In their study in Dar es Salaam, Silberschmidt
and Rasch25 found that most of the girls were currently in relationships
with married men who were twice their age. On the other hand, many studies have
shown a remarkable consistency in sexual age preferences and sexual attractiveness
across cultural settings around the world. For instance, Cunningham
and collaborators49 found that exposure to Western media was not responsible
for the high level of agreement on female attractiveness ranging between 0.91
and 0.94 among different groups of men, with American men, rural Chinese men
and rural African men sharing high levels of agreement (r = 0.90) on female attractiveness.
Precocious unions, still grounded in most developing countries,
compound the age gap between partners in sexual relationships involving young
and older people,20 as long as it is not known whether the money
or gifts received by the younger person or other exchanges that take place
are prelude to the payment of the matrimonial dowry.50 In many societies
where polygamy still prevails in both urban and rural areas like in Africa,
large age gap between the husband and his wife is inherent to the practice
of polygamy.51,52 Clearly, unbiased analyses of age differentials
between partners in sub-Saharan Africa cannot be conducted without taking into
account the type of sexual union (polygamous, monogamous, informal, formal),
which is more than just a dichotomous `married' and `unmarried', since in most
instances marriage in Africa is a process which evolves over a period of time
during which sexual relationships may take place while the partner cannot claim
a married status. Indeed, in some studies of the practice of `sugar daddy',
some girls reported that their motivation for choosing older male partners
was marriage because of the economic security these older men would provide
in the marriage or in case of an
unintended
pregnancy,33,47,48,53,54 while others may have sexual relationships
with older men without being interested in
marriage.25,33,44
Gender Differences in Sugar Daddy and Sugar Mummy Practices
Gender differences in sexual behaviour are well documented
in studies conducted around the world.3,7,9,19,43 Overwhelming evidence
suggests that females, compared to males, are more likely to report love and
less likely to report pleasure as a reason for engaging in sexual behaviour.43,55 The
few studies that have explored gender differentials in young people's relationships
with sugar daddies and sugar mummies have consistently indicated gender gap
in motives and expectations from these relationships. In general, available
studies tend to suggest that more girls are involved in (or vulnerable to)
relationships with sugar daddies than young boys involved in relationships
with sugar mummies.3,22,26,47,48 For instance, Goparaju and collaborators22 found
that in Ghana, adolescent boys reported that their sexual partners are usually
their female peers including studymates. In contrast, adolescent girls reported
that their partners include, solely or in combination, their male peers as
well as older men of various ages. These girls' younger male sexual partners
are their romantic partners whom they call `boy lovers' and may be their classmates
or peers they met outside school and with whom they have casual sex in exchange
for small favours. They have different reasons for having sex with different
partners: their older male partners or `sponsors' provide financial support,
which may be used to pay their school tuition or used for other needs. In the
case of in-school female adolescents, teachers and school administrators pressure
girls for sex and in some cases girls use sex to obtain academic or administrative
favours. But no data on a large scale has been collected to document the extent
of gender differences, and caution is needed in interpreting these pictures.
Lazare Kaptue, the first director of the National Committee
to Fight AIDS in Cameroon from its inception in January 1985 (1985-1990), found
in a qualitative study in Cameroon that despite high awareness levels of the
modes of transmission and means of prevention of HIV/AIDS, teenage boys and
girls continue to demonstrate high-risk sexual behaviour very often for economic
reasons.23 In this study, boys were inclined to seek sexual services
from prostitutes or to trade sexual favours for economic survival with sugar
mamas, because they could afford to maintain a girlfriend or because they wanted
to avoid long-term commitment. Girls reported the need to have several lovers
to help fulfil their economic needs (daily expenses, costs of education, and
expenses for clothing and cosmetics, etc). Several girls even had one or two
`sponsors' or `sugar daddies' as well as their regular boyfriend who was usually
a
fellow student. Kaptue23 also found that young boys were often coerced
into homosexual relationships with a wealthy foreign older man in exchange for
tuition, clothing and other living expenses. He stressed that his clinical experience
suggests that many young boys who are HIV positive in sub-Saharan Africa and
Cameroon in particular
have been infected through such relationships.
A number of studies have noted that one of the attractive
features of older men or women who are sugar daddies or mommies for young boys
and girls is their social influence and the opportunities they can offer to
them in terms of pursuing their studies and securing a good job upon graduation.
Such observations have come primarily from reports in focus group discussions
with university students in urban areas in developing countries.3,4,26 Adolescents,
especially girls, are usually seen as victims of (often older and married)
men's sexual exploitation. Yet, a qualitative study by Silberschmidt and Rasch25 of
51 adolescent girls who had just had an illegal abortion in Dar es Salaam (Tanzania)
found that these girls are not only victims but they also take
advantage of their relationships with
sugar daddies. They are active social agents engaging
in high-risk sexual and health behaviours in order to secure financial and material
benefits from them. In another research conducted by the International Labour
Organization in
Jamaica,12 sugar daddy girls, some below 12 years, were sexually exploited
by older men in exchange for economic benefits and basic needs (e.g., education,
food, clothing, shelter and financial support) that sometimes included support
for their
families. Teenage schoolboys called chapses in Jamaica, like the sugar
daddy girls, were having sexual relationships with sugar mummies in exchange
for economic support. These older women were usually affluent and well off and
kept the boys primarily to have sexual relationships with them at their convenience.
This they do in exchange for economic support, access to education and higher
standard of living, taking them on outings, treats and holidays and providing
them
with presents, clothing and money.
Is Sugar Daddy or Sugar Mama mainly an Urban Practice?
The practice associated with the notions of sugar daddy or
sugar mummy have been described in many parts of the world but focusing primarily
on cities.22,23,25,26,29,33,44,45,47,56,57 There is only limited
evidence from rural areas that properly controls for migration effects.24,25,48,54,58 The
practice has also been noted in other areas of the developing3,26 and
developed countries.11 Thus, the extent to which the practice is
more prevalent in urban than rural areas as well as its magnitude between and
within countries remains largely a matter of conjecture. Furthermore, existing
findings cannot even be generalised to the urban areas in most countries due
to shortcomings inherent in the methods of inquiry, sample selection bias and
units of analysis or observation of the practice. But the changing contexts
and family dynamics of many urban settings may render the situation
of urban youths quite susceptible to those
sugar daddy/mummy relationships. There are two broad categories of these youths
in many countries worldwide, namely, street children
and young people living in single parent
households. Street children tend to strive to ensure that
their basic needs are satisfied and this may mean resorting to sexual relationships
with older individuals as a survival strategy. Moreover,
the rate of female-headed households tend to be higher in urban than rural areas,
so that it is now not unusual for families with adolescents to
be headed by a single mother. Many adolescents'
time in such families may be unstructured, unsupervised and consequently expose
them to unsafe sexual behaviour under these settings.
Much of this time occurs after school hours when adolescents are frequently alone.
Studies in Africa and US indicate that female headed
households experience greater poverty due to a variety
of factors, including pay inequities faced by
women and lack of paternal financial support, which
may affect the sexual behaviour of adolescents in those
households.18
Our observations in many countries in Africa, Asia and Latin
America tend to suggest that there are movements in and out of urban and rural
areas and a great degree of fluidity in terms of where older people have their
relationships with younger people. The economic crisis in many African countries,
for example, has made many girls in rural areas very vulnerable especially
those living with their grandparents, given in part the increase in orphanage
triggered by the AIDS epidemic. These girls are often the prime target of older
and affluent people living in towns who go on weekends in their home towns
in rural areas where they have built luxurious houses and where they get these
girls to come and receive presents, money and favours for themselves and their
families in exchange for sexual relationships. Furthermore, because such transactional
sexual relationships are expected to be cheaper in rural than urban areas,
given the differential in level of
expectations and demands between urban
and rural dwellers, rural adolescents may be
particularly at risk of sexual exploitation by older
people coming from town and travellers. The
suggestion that the rural environment and its mode of
life may increase the vulnerability of adolescents,
and mainly girls, to sexual relationships with their
peers or older people is consistent with one study
in rural Uganda, which noted that girls reported
that the risk of being approached for sex increased
on their way to or from school, on their way to
the well and on their way to the market.59
Parental Care, Living Arrangement, Commitment to Marriage
and Type of Union
Increasingly in developing countries, just as it is the case
for developed countries for some time now, today adolescents and youths are
growing up in families that are diverse with respect to size, shape and structure.20 They
range from families characterised as traditional with two parents and a stay-at-home
mother (including polygamous families for a number of developing countries
especially in Africa), to dual career families, single parent families and
other forms of family structures. The promise of marriage is often the underlying
argument given by sugar daddies to entertain relationships with young girls.
In those circumstances, sexual intercourse essentially occurs without protection
from pregnancy or STIs and may expose young girls to reproductive health problems
including HIV/AIDS. The role of parental and family/household level influences
on young people's relationships to sugar daddies or mummies is a perspective
that has been recognised in the few studies that exist on sugar daddies and
mummies. It is certainly not the case that all adolescents growing up in poor
or divorced families are destined to problems and failure. There is extensive
literature that suggests that adolescents and young people living in families
and households experiencing economic hardship, divorce or both are at increased
risk for a range
of reproductive health, psychosocial
and behavioural problems. These include unintended pregnancies and sexually transmitted
infections and HIV/AIDS. However, the effects of
these challenges can be moderated by parents' behaviours.
A number of studies have found that parents warn or allow
their girls to engage in sexual relationships with well-off older people to
the extent that such relationships may increase their marriage prospect with
the older people or that their daughters and her offspring will be well taken
care of should a pregnancy occur.47,60,61 This is especially the
case for adolescents entering polygamous unions. In fact, one of the most notorious
features of marriage in Africa is the practice of polygamy. In this practice,
as men grow older they seek younger and reproducing wives (often with the help
of their first wife) such that the marriage realised in several stages can
take several years and may be initiated back during early adolescence for girls.
Until marriage is socially acknowledged, the first phases of old men's relationships
with younger women in urban areas may be quite similar in description to those
involving the sugar daddies. Existing studies in Africa have not delineated
the link between polygamy and the practice of sugar daddy or sugar mama. In
contrast, parents may disapprove such relationships if the (older) man is not
envisioning marriage to their daughter.19,24
On the other hand, the practice of `sugar daddy' and `sugar
mummy' may often please young people who are engaging in sexual relationships
with older people for whom there is no prospect or intention for marriage from
both parties as documented in a variety of urban settings including Accra in
Ghana,44 Dar es Salaam in Tanzania25 and Yaounde in Cameroon.33 This
may happen especially among girls in transition to adulthood who need `piggy-back'
support from sugar daddies to live comfortably without the expectation of possible
marriage. In those cases, they purposively look for a married sugar daddy who
can support them.
One of the features of the relationships between young people
and sugar daddies and mummies is that young people do not live with their sexual
partner. Because they are involved with men or women who are sometimes twice
or more as old as themselves, they are not in a position to negotiate for living
together. In some cases, their sugar daddies and mummies will pay their rent
and even ensure that their residence is a secured, comfortable and respectable
environment where they can feel a sense of privacy whenever they are with them.
Indeed, sugar daddies and mummies are generally married men and women and they
may even have children who are older than their young sexual partner. These
older men and women often hold leadership positions in the society or are businessmen
and women or wives of businessmen (especially in polygamous unions), as such
they fear for their reputation and as a result keep their relationships with
the young people secret. Studies in Tanzania have confirmed that as much as
half of the young girls' sugar daddy partners were already married or said
they were.25,29
Economic Vulnerability, Unequal Economic Opportunities
and Peer Pressure
Sexual relationships of young people with sugar daddies and
mummies are often linked to the financial status of parents, poverty and peer
pressure. Evidence from many societies shows that young people enter into arrangements
with older men (sugar daddies) or older women (sugar mummies), in which they
exchange sexual relationship, however casual, for money or resources to remain
in school. The greater the degree of financial dependence for survival,3,4,12,13,36,62 the
less scope girls and boys have to protect themselves.21,22,48 Crossgenerational
sexual relationships can take many forms and offering economic rewards is one
form. This is classically seen in the practice of older men securing girlfriends
who are very much younager than they by buying them presents.
Although young women may readily consent to these relationships in exchange
for presents or
money, which would otherwise be beyond their reach, it is also a form of exploitation
and coercion. It places women who are involved in such relationships at considerable
risk of HIV, STIs and pregnancy, with subsequent abandonment. Poverty is a
major reason for girls exchanging sex at an early age. Survival strategies
often involve sexual favour in exchange for money, food, shelter, clothing,
protection, affection, job and other livelihood opportunities. "I love
him because he gives me money" is a common statement among young girls
as they recount their relationships with sugar daddies. Poverty increases the
likelihood of women engaging in sex work or more subtle forms of transactional
sex, for example, trading sex for beer in bars.63 Similar forms
of relationship are also found for older women engaging in sexual intercourse
with young boys in exchange for gifts and money. Thus, the challenge of the
practice of sugar daddy and sugar mummy cannot be addressed outside the context
of
poverty prevailing within and across countries.
Perhaps the best way to characterise this challenge is illustrated
by the so-called "sex for survival", whereby young people may engage
in sexual relationships with older persons over a period of time as a currency
in exchange for money and/or gifts or for satisfaction of their basic needs
in food, clothing and shelter.35 Unequal economic opportunities
and access to education may promote a dependence on male partners or commercial
sex. Schoolchildren in Africa, for example, often resort to sex with older
sugar daddies to help pay school fees, and the fact that many sugar daddies
may have multiple partners or practice unsafe sex does not seem to prove a
deterrent.64 It is quite clear in discourses of most of those young
people that they do not engage in sexual relationships with older men or women
because of sexual pleasure, especially for girls. In Dar es Salaam, for instance,
contrary to boys who often refer to their `lust' and regard sex as the most
pleasant activity, most girls did not consider sexual intercourse with a sugar
daddy or buzi as an activity by which their own sexual needs would be
met. They saw sex as something that they provided in return for financial or
material benefits. As one of them said, "I only engage a minimum with
this buzi. I enjoy sex more with other partners."65 Here,
a buzi or sugar daddy appears to be a good source of income that most
girls do not want to loose, and sexual pleasure is less important.
However, poverty cannot be treated as the main reason that
young people engage in sexual relationships with older people. Non-monetary
reasons abound as well to explain the practice of sugar daddy and sugar mommy.
Most studies on the practice of sugar daddy and sugar mummy are based on populations
of urban youths from the middle class to higher class families, high school
pupils and university students in Nairobi (Kenya),32 Yaounde (Cameroon),33 Dar
es Salaam,25 Kisumu (Kenya), Ndola (Zambia),66 Maputo
(Mozambique),56 Durban (South Africa),36 Tanzania,13 Mumbai
City (India),37 Quezon City in the Philippines38 and
Korea.39 These youths are least likely to engage in sexual relationships
for financial or material favours as a result of sub-standard socio-economic
and living conditions or (extreme) poverty. In fact, contrary to common perception,
sugar daddy girls are not necessarily poor, since they sometimes just like
to look fashioned and privileged among their peers or pride themselves in sleeping
with the most influential (financially or administratively) men of their communities,
and may not make some of the associated requests to their parents, no matter
how wealthy they may be. This view is consistent with findings from large scale
studies, which have shown that young people's sexual relationships with older
men and women are often for sexual self-determination and other motives than
for securing their basic financial and material needs.1,11,14 These
explain why I use purposely the term `economic vulnerability' instead of `poverty'
as used in most studies on transactional and/or cross-generational sexual relationships.
Clearly, adolescents from both poor and middle class families are found in
various societies to be sugar daddy girls or sugar mommy boys. Indeed, the
original concept of the sugar daddy came from a middle class and has been applied
primarily in specific groups of young people during focus group discussions.
Hence, while there are obviously poor adolescents (especially girls) in urban
ghettos for whom transactional sex with sugar daddies/mommies may be the only
way to get support for themselves and their family members, most young people
engage in such sexual behaviour for other motives.
Another factor influencing the sexual behaviour and motives
for engaging in sexual relationships with affluent older people is that adolescents
want to be in conformity and fashion with peers. The girl may not be considered
if she does not wear the fashioned shoes, clothes or other external makeup
found among her peers or available in the market. For example, in Dar es Salaam,
several girls said they had been forced by another adolescent, a houseboy or
a schoolteacher, to have sex mainly for the first time.25 In her
subsequent research in Dar es Salaam, Silberschmidt65 found that
even if it may not be socially acceptable to have a mshikaji, the girls
in her sample were proud of having a mshikaji wa muda or a buzi as
their `financial resource' and were quite flattered by older men's interest
in them. Other studies have documented that a buzi (sugar daddy) gives
prestige among peers since a girl's status within this group is often dependent
on having nice clothes and other material possessions. Such things are achieved
most easily by entering into sexual relationship with a man who is willing
to provide these items. Moreover, not many girls or women would enter into
premarital sexual relationship without the potential
for material
recompense. In such conditions, sexual services are considered commodities
that
should be paid for and only women with no
self-respect would give such services free. In exchange
for financial compensation, men gain sexual access
and control over young women, a relationship that
acts as a booster to their virility and
self-esteem.67
Multiple Sexual Partners
There is substantial evidence around the world from existing
studies that young people engage in sexual relationships with other young people
as well as with older people either sequentially or simultaneously. They do
this for a variety of reasons including the financial and material support
they expect and receive from sugar daddies and mummies.3,11-13,22 They
also do it as a fulfilment of their desire for love, affection, companionship
and eventually marriage with their peer main sexual partner.3,26,48,68 From
the standpoint of young people as sugar daddy girls and sugar mummy boys, or
from the perspective of older and wealthier sugar daddies or mummies, there
is an implicit recognition and/or alright knowledge that the young partner
or the older lover is married or may have one or several other sexual partners.
This is because as long as the proper attention and financial responsibilities
are assumed by the sugar daddy or sugar mommy, the conditions are usually met
for perpetuating the relationship.22,25 In this respect, a number
of studies have suggested that adolescents take advantage of their relationships
with their older partners who can invest in their human capital in order to
enhance their opportunities in the educational and employment structures. They
also help to achieve their goals of high socio-economic status, secure financial
situation and social mobility for leisure, which may not be at the reach of
(or a priority for) these adolescents' parents,22,36,54,56,61 despite
their knowledge of the risk for STI/HIV infections, unintended pregnancies
and their consequ-ences.25,48,62,69
There is evidence from a number of studies that even girls
who said they loved their partner would not continue the relationship without
material benefits. In their qualitative study of 51 adolescents in Dar es Salaam,
Silberschmidt and
Rasch25 found that 25% of girls had more than one sexual partner at
the time they became pregnant, and many planned to have an illegally induced
abortion if they got pregnant. Some of them were actually planning to find one
more partner in order to increase their
financial resources.65 The majority of girls in Dar es Salaam claimed
to have had an average of 2.7 sexual partners since their sexual debut. A similar
finding was reported from Northern
Tanzania.45 In these circumstances, these young girls are seeking
more partners by targeting individuals who are capable and willing to pay for
sexual favour, and sugar daddies occupy a prominent position. There is a suggestion
that in Tanzania, many parents are perfectly aware of their daughters' escapades,
but they choose to close their eyes because it relieves them of their financial
responsibilities.
Power Differentials and Sexual Exploitation of Young People
by Sugar Daddies and Mummies
There is evidence throughout the world that both young boys
and girls experience forced sexual relationships, even if there is substantial
knowledge about coerced sexual relationships endured by girls.26,63,70,71 Forced
or coerced sex has been a widely neglected issue in reproductive health research
worldwide and especially in developing countries, despite its deleterious consequences
on women's health. It makes women unable to protect themselves against unintended
pregnancy, abortions and sexually transmitted infections including HIV/AIDS.
The epidemiology of non-consensual sex, which is often associated with the
sugar papas and sugar mamas practice deserves attention, given its considerable
public health importance. In all societies worldwide, there is overwhelming
evidence that gender power differentials tend to play an important role in
male-
female sexual relationships and that both
boys and girls experience sexual relationships in
the context of power imbalance with older
partners.22,26,35,46 Unequal power relations in young people's relationships
with older sugar daddies and sugar mamas has been suggested in literature with
conjectures that adolescent girls and boys involved in such relationships with
older men are quite powerless to discuss or negotiate safe sexual practices or
to control sexual violence and
exploitation.3,25,26,68,72 In such relationships of dependency, adolescents
and young people find it very difficult to protect themselves from sexual exploitation
and very often have to tolerate abuse. Disparities in power result in girls often
lacking the confidence to negotiate. Therefore, reproductive and health problems
including HIV/AIDS affect men and women differently. This arises from the differential
infection rates and learned cultural values and norms, including early marriage
stereotypes, gender roles and power relations, that impose a disproportionate
burden of care and nurturing on women.
Some studies of age mixing in sexual relationships consider
the practice of sugar daddy and sugar mommy as an indirect indicator of sexual
coercion, to the extent that a refusal of money and/or gift offered by the
older person in exchange for sex leads to severe consequences experienced by
the young person. Indeed, that practice has been reported by adolescent girls
in a number of studies as a reason for engaging in sexual intercourse against
their will with sugar daddies. This has been reported in settings as diverse
as in Selibe Phikwe, Mahalapye and Kang (Botswana), Dar es Salaam (Tanzania),
Republic of Korea, where studies report that perpetrators were often in position
of authority such as work place supervisors, or in Botswana and Tanzania where
sugar daddies were reported to be sometimes older male teachers, policemen,
priests and relatives.3 Similarly, this practice has also been reported
by boys in five settings where coercive relationships between adolescent males
and older
females have been examined such as
in Dumaguete City in the Philippines.3
Recently, Straight Talk, a free monthly magazine targeted
at adolescents in Uganda, indicates that girls fall easy prey to sugar daddies
because they have no bargaining power.73 It has been found that
one of the reasons older men choose young girls for sex is to avoid having
to pay for it. A social worker with Slums Information Development and Resource
Centres in Nairobi (Kenya) notes that the young girls might be satisfied with
sweets while a regular sex worker could charge anything from 100 Kenyan shillings
or US$0.80, and oral sex could cost half that sum.74 Such sexual
exploitation within the context of young girls' relationships with sugar daddies
is by no means comparable to or associated with prostitution. In Dar es Salaam,
for instance, Silberschmidt65 documents that while the girls in
her study were involved overtly in transactional sex, they did not see it as
prostituting themselves. Indeed, most women in a Tanzanian or East African
context with any self-respect would be very reluctant to engage in sexual relationship
with a man without any material benefits. Men who are unable to provide such
benefits are met with contempt. It was also obvious to these adolescent girls
in her study that no man would give them money or other material benefits unless
they received something in return. Sexual services were all that these girls
could bargain with and they were willing to offer their services not as a means
of survival, but as a means to get access to small `luxuries', schooling amenities
and prestige from peers, among other benefits.65
Misconceptions and Beliefs
In a number of societies in Africa, it has been reported that
men believe younger women are less likely to be HIV positive and, therefore,
men are choosing younger sex partners. Furthermore, a myth persists among some
men that having sex with a virgin can cure AIDS. In this context, some
teenage girls choose older men or sugar
daddies as sex partners to get gifts or money for school.
A number of researchers have stressed that this increase
is closely associated with the sugar daddy and sugar mummy practice, partly
because older people fearing HIV infection increasingly seek sexual favours
from adolescent males and females who they believe are most likely to be HIV
free.21,35,48 It is a known fact that most young adolescents are
very unlikely to carry a sexually transmitted infection, and this fact has
been used by some older people as a motive to have sexual intercourse with
these adolescents either because they consider them as a `safe zone' for sexual
activity or because of the prevailing myth that having sex with virgins offers
a sure cure for HIV/AIDS. Several such worrisome misconceptions about HIV/AIDS
have spread among populations in many countries. At the same time, many young
people hold the common perception that clean, well-dressed and good-looking
people are not and cannot be infected with HIV. In Nairobi, it was found that
many older men (sugar daddies) choose young girls for sex in the belief that
they couldn't possibly be infected with HIV.74
Internet and Young People's Relationships with Sugar Daddies
and Sugar Mamas
The availability of new technologies for communication, and
particularly the internet, has also served the purpose of facilitating contacts
and follow-up sexual relationships across local and national boundaries. There
is increasing evidence to establish a link between the internet universe and
the spread and prevention of STI/HIV infections among adolescents.75 The
internet has had such a profound impact on the way contacts, friendships and
sexual relationships are initiated in less technologically internet-driven
societies of Latin America and Africa as well as in many parts around the world.
This is because internet is a media through which one can
communicate one's desires directly and
entirely anonymous.
For example, while some sites that promote sexual encounters
are designed for adults, some sites are explicitly targeting relationships
involving sugar daddies and sugar mamas. For example, the purpose of the website
http://www.sugar-daddies-and-sugar-mamas.com/ is to provide a place where sugar
daddies, sugar mamas and the young adult men and women seeking them can post
their personals and photos. Hence, with the increased influence of globalisation
and inter-national migration, a number of young boys and girls in many developing
countries may prefer to engage in sexual relationships with a foreign older
Western European or North American man or woman as a boyfriend or girlfriend
or even husband. This is to promote his/her status among peers and often to
secure better living conditions including travelling and living abroad for
his/herself, family members and relatives at least for the duration of the
relationship. Hence, the role of internet accessibility and utilisation on
young people's relationships with well-off older men and women both within
and across national boundaries deserves investigation.
Legal Vacuum
There is a diversity of legal meaning and criminal code regarding
sexual relationships between men and women and across ages. In many or all
countries where the practice of sugar daddy and sugar mummy has been reported,
there is no legislation adopted and/or enforced to address the issues of sexual
exploitation of all forms of children.
What is needed are legislations protecting children as specified
by international conventions and as it is the case in most developed countries
where there are minimal legal age for sexual intercourse and legal provisions
protecting children until they can exercise their right to sexual self-determination.
Laws against "seduction" of minors should also be adopted and enforced,
because even in many countries where such
law exists it is hardly ever
enforced.14 Finally, sexual relationships with juveniles in relationships
of authority should be outlawed. For example, in Russia, it is an offence (irrespective
of age) to practise upon a financial or other dependency to gain sexual contact.
In Poland and Spain, there is a general law against the abuse of dependency for
sexual purposes regardless of the age of
the partners.14
Consequences of Young People's Relationships with Sugar
Daddies and Mummies
Many studies of age mixing in sexual relationships and those
dealing with the issue of sugar daddies and sugar mummies in particular have
suggested that such practice inevitably bring the boys and girls into contact
with the high-risk segments of the population for sexually transmitted infections
(STI) and of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). The quantitative basis and
clinical evidence substantiating the link between that practice and the incidence
rate of HIV among adolescents remain limited48 and deserve further
investigation. For girls, there is the additional risk of unintended pregnancy
and abortions. Other consequences on these boys and girls, their families and
their communities exist, including the physical, economic, educational, social,
and health-related short and long-term consequences. However, I focus on unwanted
pregnancies, abortions, STI and HIV given their public and reproductive health
implications and the fact that they are amenable to comprehensive interventions.
Studies carried out in the developed and developing countries
have often reported that a substantial proportion of girls overlook the possibility
of becoming pregnant.19,18,76 This is also true when they are involved
in relationships with sugar daddies. As reported in a study in Dar es Salaam
(Tanzania), a few girls thought they were too young to get pregnant.25 This
study found that one of the consequences of sexual relations
between young girls and sugar daddies
was voluntary abortions in case of pregnancy at
the request and expense of their sugar daddy
partner. Some sugar daddies even offer assistance
in dealing with the problem of pregnancy. This study also found that 73% of the
15-19-year-olds admitted to hospital for
`incomplete' abortion reported that their sexual partner
was 30 years or older. In general, these older men
do not want to have children with the young girls, but keep and use them for
their sexual enjoyment. Thus, abortion often takes place in
these relationships when the sugar daddy partner
does not accept the paternity.
Sexual relationships between young people and their sugar
daddies and mummies also have potentially deleterious health consequences on
both the young person and his/her sugar daddy or mummy. First, exploitative
intergenerational sexual relationships may be implicated in HIV transmission.
Unequal power relations often make it difficult for females to negotiate condom
use. Recent estimates from Africa show that HIV transmission rate peaks among
girls aged 15-20 years, and that about 60% of all new HIV infections occur
among the 15-24-year-olds.17 Second, studies have shown that women
are about three times more likely than men to be infected through sexual intercourse,
because vaginal wall is prone to sores and abrasion, and the viral load in
semen is higher than that in vaginal fluid. High rates of STI or HIV infection
can therefore be attributed to a combination of biological and social factors.
One of the few studies linking age gap differentials with
HIV infection was carried out in rural eastern Zimbabwe with blood for HIV
testing provided by all male and female respondents aged 15-54 years. The study
concluded that sexual relationships with older men or women put young people
(particularly girls) at high risk of HIV infection.48 In descriptive
analyses, the risk of HIV infection among 17-24-year-old women increased with
the cumulative number of partners and number of
years by which women were younger than
their most recent partner. Similarly for men, HIV
risk increased with cumulative number of partners and age difference with the
most recent partner. In multivariate analyses, HIV infection risk
also increased with each year by which the
respondents were younger than their most recent partner
(1.04 for both men and women). For instance, Silberschmidt and
Rasch25 suggest that with increasing awareness of HIV/AIDS, older
men considered as sugar daddies are increasingly blamed for luring young girls
into high-risk sexual relations by promising them some sort of financial or material
support. On the other hand, while the sugar daddies trust that they are having
safe sex with their young girlfriends, they may in fact be jeopardising their
own health, that of their wife and other partners. Indeed, several studies have
reported misconceptions about STI protective behaviour for older people, adults,
young boys and especially
girls.77-80 The relationship of these misconceptions to abstinence,
condom use and STI/HIV incidence is well established in
literature.78,79
Some studies have suggested that sugar daddy and sugar mummy
practices have dire consequences with respect to HIV/AIDS. For instance, Peter
Piot, executive director of UNAIDS, recently noted that there are teenage girls
whose only way of staying on at school is to barter sex with teachers or sugar
daddies, who will pay for books, uniforms and fees.21 Ugandan officials
also consider that one of the big challenges remains the reduction of the comparatively
high prevalence of HIV among girls aged 15-19 years. The acting programme manager
of the Ugandan AIDS Control Programme noted that girls are six times more likely
to be infected with HIV than boys the same age. He attributed this to the sugar
daddy syndrome, referring to older relatively wealthy men who engage adolescents
in sexual relationships.73 But the evidence from literature remains
inconclusive, and more rigorous cross-
national research on representative
community-based samples of adolescents and girls
in particular is needed. For instance, Gregson and
colleagues48 found in rural Zimbabwe that a one-year increase in age
difference is associated with a 4% increase in HIV infection risk, with most
recent non-marital sexual partner on HIV infection for young people aged 17-24
years. In
contrast, Glynn and collaborators66 found in two urban settings in
Kenya and Zambia that there is no effect of age of the older partner on HIV infection
risk for unmarried girls.
Implications for Research and Inter-ventions Targeting
Adolescents and Young People
Over the past two decades or so, researchers have made substantial
progress in describing sexual relationships between adolescents and older people
that are associated with the practice of having these relationships in exchange
for money, presents, favours and other material benefits that adolescents receive.
At the same time, there are indications that these relationships increase the
risk and prevalence of STI and HIV infections among adolescents and young people.
Just as evidence is mounting about this practice and its associated factors,
it appears that in studies of the young people's relationships with sugar daddies
or mummies, the connection between these behaviours and the individual, familial,
community characteristics which perpetuate them in combination with partners'
attributes are little investigated. There is also little attention to the psychological
worlds of young people and the ways teenagers and young people construct and
interpret the developmental changes they are experiencing and, therefore, how
the influence of social settings is mediated by psychological and cognitive
processes as they experience these relationships. These unmeasured factors
are part of the randomness in the content and contexts of young people's interactions
with older men
and women, and the extent to which sexual
activity is traded for some material or financial favours.
This paper has raised a series of metho-dological challenges
in defining and measuring this practice and the difficulties in understanding
and comparing research in diverse contexts and countries due to potential differences
in culture, language, education, wealth, living environment and local economy
in the context of globalisation. Thus, more in-depth research combining quan-titative
and qualitative methodologies, particularly cross-culturally, on meanings of
different forms and contents of sexual relationships between young people and
older individuals is of paramount importance if progress is to be made in addressing
the many ways in which young people are sexually exploited and coerced as well
as the scope of the short, medium and long-term consequences. Such cross-cultural
endeavour is essential in understanding young and older people's risky sexual
behaviours and their needs as victims or perpetrators and priorities for intervention
and policy formulation.
Future Research and Data Needs
As regards the estimates of the prevalence/extent of sexual
relationships of young people with sugar daddies and sugar mamas, in the absence
of substantial evidence based on several datasets, disagreement about the magnitude
of the practice of sugar daddy or sugar mama in any setting is a matter of
fact. There is an urgent need to do comparable qualitative and quantitative
studies on the epidemiology of this practice so that its specificity, sensitivity,
various aspects and risk/protective factors measured at the individual, family
and community levels can be determined. Most studies in this area are based
on focus group discussions, which tend to capture general perceptions, local
moral or normative beliefs, and sensational stories for the media, anecdotal
evidence and often rumours, not truly individual experiences.
The lack of an agreed definition and specificity of the practice
of sugar daddy and sugar mummy and the paucity of data describing the nature
and extent of the problem worldwide have contributed to its lack of visibility
on the agenda of policymakers and donors. There is a need for substantial further
research on almost every aspect of individual adolescent males and females
experiencing sexual relationships with older men and women in exchange for
money, presents and favourable treatments within the framework of the sugar
daddy and sugar mummy practice. This should include (i) the incidence and prevalence
of the practice in a range of settings across and within countries using a
standard research tool for capturing the practice; (ii) the risk and protective
factors for being a victim or a perpetrator of such practice; (iii) the emotional,
psychological, health and social consequences in the short, medium and long-term
of different forms of this practice; and (iv) the social contexts of different
forms of such practice.
The trustworthiness of self-reported sexual behaviour data
retrieved from either qualitative or quantitative research methodologies have
been questioned repeatedly since the early studies.81 Self-reports
of sexual relationships between younger and older people as they relate to
the practice of sugar daddy and sugar mummy reviewed here are even more questionable
due to data limitations and methodological shortcomings inherent in existing
studies. To address a number of outstanding issues related to young people's
sexual relationships with older people, two large scale community surveys conducted
in several urban and rural areas of Cameroon by the author of this paper have
sought information from young people and older men and women. The preliminary
evidence suggests that the picture is a complex one. Hence, it is important
to collect information from young people and older men and women within the
same study site on (i) the type of relationship;
(ii) whether a pregnancy occurred; (iii) partner's
age; (iv) marital status; (v) number of children;
(vi) socio-economic standing of the partner (education, employment, etc); (vii)
age of partners at onset and duration of the sexual
relationships; (viii) frequency of sexual encounters; (ix)
material and immaterial exchanges between the young
and the older person; (x) partner's attitude to use
of contraception; (xi) partner's reaction if there
was a pregnancy; (xii) prospect for the
relationship with the partner; and (xiii) raison d'être and motives of
the relationship and whether either the young person or the old man or woman
has any long-term goals for the relationship including marriage. Because of the
continued importance of marriage in many developing countries, most girls continue
to believe that the need to find a suitable husband and build a family is more
important than pursuing schooling or professional goals. Indeed, it was once
noted that in parts of Africa, deliberately becoming pregnant is often a strategy
for securing a husband and attaining a certain social status.
More research is also needed to determine the magnitude of
the practice of sugar daddy and sugar mummy around the world including its
salient features in urban versus rural areas. Such research should also explore
the physical, psychological, emotional and health impact of these relationships
on the health, education, life options and opportunities, living arrangements
and morals of the boys and girls involved.
Legal and Public Health Implications of this Review
The prevention and policy responses to young people's sexual
relationships with older people need to be based on an understanding of the
problem, its causes and the circumstances in which it occurs. In all studies
to date around the world on age mixing, cross-generational and/or transactional
sexual relationships, the practice of
sugar daddy and sugar mummy is not
adequately addressed in legislation. Studies conducted on
the practice have not been very illuminating in
terms of making it a public health issue, given
its quantitative importance. In addition, this
practice is frequently not treated as an offence to
minors in the sense that it involves transaction for
sexual favours, which are criminal offences in most
legal systems in the developed world.
Unfortunately, in most developing countries and in
sub-Saharan Africa where the majority of studies on
cross-generational transactional sexual relationships
have been conducted, there is much to be done
before the practice of sugar daddies and sugar
mommies are properly acknowledged and addressed as
a reprehensible sexual behaviour of older people against adolescent males and
females, who are the victims the society, legal and judiciary
systems need to protect. Such a necessary step will
enable more comprehensive prevention measures and better support for the adolescent
victims. It will also allow an integrated youth prevention programme for both
male and female
adolescents to the extent that the practice becomes a
social and public health problem encompassing both genders.
Because sex laws are dealing with the most intimate and private
aspect of human existence, and sexual intercourse remains the main mode of
transmission of HIV/AIDS in sub-Saharan Africa where the practice of sugar
daddy and sugar mummy has been most explored, sex laws protecting minors and
juveniles under 18 years against this practice and other forms of child sexual
abuse and exploitation should be developed, adopted and enforced, whether sex
was consensual or not. The complexity of such laws is evident from the
17 variations on sexual conduct examined in the case of the United States by
Posner and Silbaugh,15 including bestiality, necrophilia, sodomy,
incest, public nudity and age of consent.
A Call for Action
An integrated effort at all levels of leadership is needed
to counter the practice of sugar daddy girls or sugar mummy boys and to avoid
its further spread. Serious political commitment and adequate resource allocation
are essential elements to save the lives of millions of persons and the economic
viability of the societies involved. In addition, a more complete knowledge
of the complex interactions of the various factors affecting the spread of
the epidemic is urgently needed in order to develop appropriate prevention
initiatives. Many international organisations are now aware of the reproductive
health risks orchestrated by young people's relationships with older men and
women and some of them have developed non-formal education approaches to HIV/AIDS
prevention in this context. For instance, UNESCO has recently produced materials
covering a range of pertinent subjects including two booklets dealing with
the issue of sugar daddies, one booklet from urban rich girls' perspectives
and the other from the point of view of poor rural parents.21 These
materials are designed to help people change their behaviour towards practicing
safe sex in relationships between women and men and the cultural practices
influencing such relationships. These materials are targeted at both poor rural
people and particularly women and girls who are most at risk in any society
as well as men who have been singled out as the most important actors in bringing
about successful HIV/AIDS prevention.
Acknowledgements
A preliminary version of this article was presented at the
International Conference on Non-Consensual Sexual Experiences of Young People
in Developing Countries held in New Delhi (India), 22-25 September 2003. It
was co-organised by the Population Council, World Health Organization and Family
Health
International. This work was carried out as
part of the research programme of the Population Health and Nutrition Research
Laboratory (PRONUSTIC) at the University of
Montreal and was supported in part by a grant from
the Rockefeller (New York, USA) to Professor Kuate-Defo.
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