On Same-Sex Sexual Behaviors Among Male Bachelors in Rural China: Evidence From a Female Shortage Context

Using data from a survey conducted in the rural areas of Anhui Province, this study adopted the crosstabs and logistic regression model to analyze the same-sex sexual behaviors of forced male bachelors and the determinants when compared with married men with same ages. The prevalence of same-sex sexual behaviors among the unmarried men was reported as 17.2%, significantly higher than 8.9% among married men with same ages, indicating that same-sex sexual behaviors could be as a compensation for the absence of female sexual partners to some extent for those marriage squeezed or forced male bachelors. Among all groups, the occurrence of unprotected sexual behaviors were reported above 60%, regardless of marital status and the genders of sexual partners; the scores obtained on knowledge of acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) and sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) among bachelors (AIDS knowledge = 2.85; STDs knowledge = 2.38) are much poorer than those of married men (AIDS knowledge = 3.45; STDs knowledge = 2.79), which might exert potential negative impacts on men's health.