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Stigma in a Collectivistic Culture: Social Network of Female Sex Workers in China

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Abstract

In this egocentric network study, we explored Chinese collectivism in relation to social network characteristics and sex work-related stigma among mid-age female sex workers (FSWs). Respondent-driven sampling was used to recruit 1245 mid-age FSWs from three cities in China. We found that a one standard deviation (SD) increase in FSWs’ collectivism was associated with a 0.18 SD decrease in social support (95% CI − 0.32, − 0.04), a 0.20 SD decrease in network effective size (i.e., the diversity of a social network; 95% CI − 0.30, − 0.10), and a 0.21 SD decrease in network betweenness (i.e., the “bridging potential” of egos within their networks; 95% CI − 0.33, − 0.09). Among participants who perceived more sex work stigma, the association between collectivism and FSWs' network betweenness was attenuated. In a collective culture emphasizing group values and honor, belonging to a less interconnected social network may give FSWs a structural advantage to cope with stigma and secure social support.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to the staff from Shandong University School of Public Health, Nanning Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Hefei Center for Diseases Control and Prevention, and Qingdao Center for Disease Control and Prevention for their participation in the study, and to all the participants who willingly gave their time to provide the study data. This work was supported by a research Grant (R01HD068305) from National institutes of Health. The funders had no role in study design, data collection, and analysis, the decision to publish or preparation of the manuscript.

Funding

This research is supported by NIH funding: R01 HD068305-01.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, University of Maryland School of Public Health, 4200 Valley Dr, College Park, MD, 20742, USA

    Yuruo Li, Natalie Slopen, Quynh Nguyen & Hongjie Liu

  2. Department of Social and Behavioral Science, Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA

    Natalie Slopen

  3. Department of Human Development and Quantitative Methodology, University of Maryland College Park, College Park, USA

    Tracy Sweet

  4. Department of Behavioral and Community Health, University of Maryland School of Public Health, College Park, USA

    Kenneth Beck

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  1. Yuruo Li
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  6. Hongjie Liu
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Contributions

Conceptualization: YL, HL; Methodology: HL, YL, TS; Formal analysis and investigation: YL; Writing—original draft preparation: YL; Writing—review and editing: HL, NS, QN, KB; Funding acquisition: HL; Supervision: HL.

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Correspondence to Yuruo Li.

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The study protocol was approved by the Institutional Review Board (IRB) of the University of Maryland.

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Li, Y., Slopen, N., Sweet, T. et al. Stigma in a Collectivistic Culture: Social Network of Female Sex Workers in China. AIDS Behav 26, 297–309 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10461-021-03383-w

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