Sex: What Zimbabwean youth in politics like

Abstract

This study was designed to understand the sexual lifestyles of Zimbabwean youths during their participation in political activities, especially during election campaign periods. A well-structured questionnaire was used. Participants were purposively sampled, according to inclusion criteria -being youth (17-30 years of age) and have engaged in sex. The research targeted activities that were undertaken in a total of 331-day period between 2002 and 2013. Fifty (50) participants were sampled from each of the 4 selected election episodes. Grounded theory and NVIVO, a qualitative research analysis software was used to analyze data and the strain theory of delinquency guided the study. The study established that the youth indeed, participate in bases’ casual sex both freely and under coercion, while also documenting various consequences like sexually transmitted infections, pregnancies and crimes.