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Migration and sexual partnerships among unmarried young men in Thailand: a longitudinal approach

  • Original article
  • Published:
International Journal of Public Health

Abstract

Objectives

Migrants typically report more sexual behavior than non-migrants. In existing work, the potentially confounding effects of selection loom large. Our objective is to discern whether migrants actually do engage in more sexual activity than their non-migrating counterparts, once selection is accounted for.

Methods

We used three waves of data from a longitudinal panel study in Thailand. Panel members were rural unmarried men, some of whom subsequently migrated to urban areas and were re-interviewed there. Migrants were compared to their non-migrant counterparts and to a separate sample of long-term urban dwellers.

Results

There were no differences between eventual migrants and non-migrant counterparts in sexual partnerships before migration. Migration increased sexual partnerships with stable partners and strangers, compared with rural non-migrants.

Conclusions

Unmarried men who moved to urban areas had increased sexual partnerships with stable partners and strangers. Without proper means of protection, this pattern of behavior puts these men and their sexual partners at elevated risk of unwanted pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections (STIs). Public health programs should target unmarried male migrants for pregnancy control and STI prevention.

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Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge the logistic and field support from the Institute for Population and Social Research’s Kanchanaburi Demographic Surveillance System, Mahidol University.

Funding

The study is funded by Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, National Institutes of Health (R01 HD46527).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Nutrition and Health Science, Ball State University College of Health, Muncie, IN, USA

    Mengxi Zhang

  2. Department of Population, Family and Reproductive Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD, USA

    Philip Anglewicz

  3. Department of Global Community Health and Behavioral Sciences, Tulane University School of Public Health, New Orleans, LA, USA

    Mark VanLandingham

Authors
  1. Mengxi Zhang
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  2. Philip Anglewicz
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  3. Mark VanLandingham
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Mengxi Zhang.

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Conflict of interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

Ethical approval

This study was approved by the Tulane Human Research Protection Office (IRB#: 141361-8). Written informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

Informed consent

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

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Zhang, M., Anglewicz, P. & VanLandingham, M. Migration and sexual partnerships among unmarried young men in Thailand: a longitudinal approach. Int J Public Health 65, 1681–1688 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00038-020-01491-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00038-020-01491-3

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