Why do male students in higher education buy sex? A Phenomenological Exploration
Abstract Background Epidemiological and behavioral studies have concentrated on female sex workers. There's a crucial ought to focus equivalent attention on the activities of male clients as has been directed towards female sex workers. In Ethiopia, where higher education students considered as the most at-risk population for human immune deficiency virus, the transmission of infection may occur within networks composed of female sexworkers, their clients and the other sexual partners of the latter. However, there is a huge gap in qualitative studieson the exploration of why higher education male students buy sex. Objective The purpose of this study was to explore why higher education male students buy sex. Methods A qualitative phenomenological approach was used. Semi-structured interviews wereconducted with 12 higher education male students who had a history of visiting female sex workers during their stay on campus.Inductive codingwas used to determine invariant constituents reduce constituents to sub-themes, and clustersub-themes into themes. Dependability and credibility were achieved through an audio recording, bracketing, and member checking. Results Through the use of thematic analysis two common themes and five sub-themes were identified from motives of male higher education students to buy sex.These themes are motives associated with desires including emotional and experiential; and motives associated with context including academic, time and money context, socio-environmental context and family, romantic partner and campus girl context. Conclusions In this study, Sexual need, sexual fantasies,experiential desire, Peer pressure, substance use, low academic result, availability of time and money, break up with a romantic partner and demanding nature of campus girls were the reasons reported by participants when they were asked about why they visited female sex worker. Therefore, addressing higher education male students’ motives related to their desire and context is vital.