Official websites use. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites. This question is central to the spread of HIV in the increasingly urban and poor, high prevalence countries of sub-Saharan Africa, where transmission is primarily via heterosexual sex. In many circles, sexual exclusivity is considered a prominent feature of the marriage institution. Yet, marriage and cohabitation are often not easily distinguishable in sub-Saharan Africa, meaning that the frequent use, as a proxy, of the "in union" category, which includes married as well as cohabiting persons can, at best, be considered tenuous.
Using the Nairobi Cross-Sectional Slum Survey NCSS , this paper confirms that marriage is associated with higher reports of sexual exclusivity even in settings where poverty provokes risky behavior. The finding, here, is of lower risk of HIV infection for married respondents, with a smaller effect observed among non-married cohabiters.
Converse to the implied benefits of marriage, though, women with co-wives are more likely to report multiple partners. The implications of these findings are discussed. The question of whether sexual exclusivityβthe restriction of sexual engagements to a single partnerβis the purview of monogamous marriage is implicit in the discourse about the value of marriage.
In western countries, sexual exclusivity is considered a prominent feature of the institution of marriage Nock, While some like Waite suggest that cohabitation is associated with lower levels of exclusivity, others like Cherlin argue that the benefits of marriage, and particularly those that derive from the pooling of resources as well as from economies of scale, may also attach to cohabiting, non-marital unions.
Marriage, however, presumably confers enforceable trust that obtains from the public declaration of the relationship by the principals and the attendant commitment of friends and relatives to the cohesion of the union.
