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tibioperoneoastragalinas
Nov 15, 2016 11:07
7 yrs ago
26 viewers *
Spanish term

parejas afectivas

Spanish to English Social Sciences Social Science, Sociology, Ethics, etc.
This is in a research paper on the prevention of HIV in transgender people and men who have sex with men in Nicaragua. I am having a mental block with how to term this in English - all I can come up with is "long-term partners", or "steady partners"; can anyone do any better? Indeed, have I understood it correctly?

"Los riesgos asociados identificados son: uso inconsistente de condón, especialmente durante el sexo anal y con parejas afectivas, alto número de parejas sexuales, trabajo sexual y sexo transaccional, e insuficiente acceso a la prueba."
Proposed translations (English)
4 partners in an intimate/exclusive/long-term relationship
4 +2 romantic partners
4 domestic partnership
4 partners in an affective relationship
4 loving partners
4 steady partners

Discussion

Muriel Vasconcellos Nov 16, 2016:
@ Charles You make good arguments, though a researcher should be careful not to invent terms without defining them clearly. What bothers me the most is that this relationship is characterized as a distinct from "parejas sexuales" - which is about as unscientific as you can get.
Charles Davis Nov 16, 2016:
(Continued) After all, at one end of the scale it is perfectly normal these days, albeit not universal, of course, for condoms to be used in casual sexual encounters. But many people, I think, feel some aversion to using them with a significant other, a person to whom they feel an emotional attachment, even if this is not what you would call a "steady" relationship. (I'm referring to using them to prevent STDs, not to prevent pregnancy.) And I don't think the decision whether or not to use a contraceptive will necessarily be based wholly on a calculation of the chances of being infected, that is, on the probability that one's partner is infected. Using a condom might, perhaps, be interpreted by the other party as indicating that one sees that other person as a risk, which could incline someone not to do so.

So as I say, I think emotional issues are far from irrelevant to this issue and should certainly not be dismissed as "lovey-dovey" or lacking in academic seriousness. And pace UNAIDS, I find the term "intimate partner" just a touch aseptic and ultimately rather evasive (as I said before, any sex is intimate).
Charles Davis Nov 16, 2016:
@Muriel Well, the fact that the UNAIDS document uses the term "intimate" certainly means it deserves consideration. But I have some reservations here.

First, I have checked the equivalent Spanish document, "Orientaciones terminológicas de ONUSIDA", and neither "pareja afectiva" nor "pareja íntima" appears in it. There doesn't seem to be an official Spanish AIDS term for this, though "pareja íntima" is used in UN Spanish documents, at least in relation to intimate partner violence. On the other hand, the term the author has used, "pareja afectiva", is very widespread in Spanish-language research on sexual behaviour and contraception.

Personally I have misgivings about dismissing the emotional element inherent in "afectiva" as irrelevant. It seems to me that love and affection are part of life and cannot properly be ignored by sex researchers, or by sociologists or psychologists generally. The author may be using the term as a conventional way of referring to a stable relationship, or may possibly be suggesting that people's feelings towards their sexual partner affect their sexual behaviour and specifically their use of contraception. This seems to me very likely to be true.
Muriel Vasconcellos Nov 16, 2016:
@ Charles Then perhaps 'intimate' might be a compromise? This is supposed to be a research paper, but apparently the author hasn't taken the trouble to research the basic standardized AIDS terminology. The categories, as written in the original, are not mutually exclusive, since a steady-or-whatever relationship is still sexual--or we wouldn't be talking about it.
Charles Davis Nov 16, 2016:
It does seem to me that this question raises a common and basic problem in translation generally: do we translate what the writer says, or do we put what we think the writer probably meant to say or what makes most sense to us in the context? We all, I think, tend to do the latter a lot. In principle, it's always seemed to me that pinning down the inherent semantic scope of the source term is the first task, and one that is often glossed over. In this case, I've already suggested that equating "afectiva" with "steady" or "long-term" may be reading meaning into the term that it doesn't inherently carry, apparently on the basis of an assumption about people's decisions on using contraception. If the long-lastingness or steadiness of the relationship is the uppermost consideration in the writer's mind, rather than its "affective", "romantic" or "intimate" nature, it's reasonable, I think, to ask oneself why the word "afectiva" was used rather than something like "estable".
Ana Vozone Nov 16, 2016:
Steady relationhsip vs. Intimate relationship I think a person can have an intimate relationship that is not steady/regular, and that is why I suggested "steady", which designates a long-term relationship, involving "afectos"...

https://www.google.pt/webhp?sourceid=chrome-instant&ion=1&es...
Muriel Vasconcellos Nov 16, 2016:
There's an official glossary for AIDS terminology My answer cites the standardized terminology for AIDS. See the link below.
Charles Davis Nov 15, 2016:
Well At least if you have sex with an inanimate object you don't have to worry about wearing a condom.
neilmac Nov 15, 2016:
Ref: http://www.therichest.com/rich-list/10-people-who-are-in-lov...
neilmac Nov 15, 2016:
@James An "affective relationship" in sociology/psychology need not only refer to a sexual bond; you can have an "affective relationshp" with inanimate objetcts (for example, fetishism). IMHO all the lovey-dovey suggestions so far (while not "wrong" per se) are less appropriate for a formal academic text of this nature.
Charles Davis Nov 15, 2016:
@James :) Yes, it's sometimes used in effect as a euphemism for any sexual partner. I'm still not sure that it refers here only to steady partners; I have a feeling that may be restricting it too much. My feeling is that it means having sex with the person you're currently committed to and whom you know and care for, as opposed to people you've only just met (gay male sex commonly includes a great deal of the latter). But as you say, it depends what you mean by "romantic" and "steady".
James Peel (asker) Nov 15, 2016:
@Charles Yes, the text you have found there clearly has "pareja afectiva" as a sexual relationship of whatever type. In my text it seems to be used as a term to distinguish the type of relationship as different from the more casual relationships; all the relationships mentioned in the text are de facto sexual ones, so here it is referring to one of a more stable nature. So in your text it is being used for what I understand as a "romantic partner", while in my text it is being used for what you understand as a "romantic partner".
Don't you just love language?
Charles Davis Nov 15, 2016:
I'm not sure we can assume that "pareja afectiva", as used here, necessarily means "pareja estable", though they are sometimes used synonymously. This is from a relevant study on condom use with heterosexual "parejas afectivas":

"Aunque ya existen algunos instrumentos semejantes, ninguno plantea de forma exclusiva la valoración de las ventajas e inconvenientes del uso del preservativo con una pareja afectiva; puesto que o bien no concretan el tipo de pareja (Brown, 1984; Bernard, Hebert, Man y Farrar, 1989; Noar, Morokoff y Redding, 2001), o bien se refieren a la pareja principal (Grimley et al., 1997; Lauby et al., 1998) o bien a la pareja estable ( Morrison-Beedy, Carey y Levis, 2002)."
http://revistas.um.es/analesps/article/download/140632/12672...
Charles Davis Nov 15, 2016:
@James My feeling is that "romantic partner" is not someone you've only just started a passionate liaison with; it's someone you've already got to know enough to trust them. It may not imply a long-lasting relationship but it does imply a considered and non-casual partnership, involving some emotional intimacy and sharing of personal issues that brings with it a concern for the other person's welfare and (normally) an expectation of fidelity that goes with commitment. That, to me, is the crux of the relevance to using precautions.
James Peel (asker) Nov 15, 2016:
Answers so far Many thanks to all three for your answers so far - as always I really do appreciate your help. My thoughts at the moment are as follows:
- "romantic partners" - I don't have a problem with the register at all, and agree that it is a recognised term. However, I am not sure that it has exactly the right meaning here; my understanding of "romantic partners" - and of the much more formal "partners in an affective relationship" - is simply that we are talking about people who are romantically involved - which could be a short, passionate liaison or a long-term, steady relationship. It is my understanding of the text that it is more the latter that we are going for here - so the opposite of a casual partner, if you will. My understanding is that one of the at-risk groups is people who don't take necessary precautions because they are in a steady relationship and so don't take into consideration that partner's past.
- "domestic partnership" goes too far the other way and suggests a formalised relationship.
Maybe I should go with "steady partner"? Any other thoughts?

Proposed translations

1 day 23 mins
Selected

partners in an intimate/exclusive/long-term relationship

"Intimate relationship" is from the UNAIDS official glossary on AIDS terminology. This would be my preference because it has been legitimized by UNAIDS. See the link at:
http://www.unaids.org/sites/default/files/media_asset/2015_t...

"Exclusive relationship" isn't mentioned but would appear to be a key concept.

"Long-term relationship" has many hits on the Internet.

Let's face it, the distinction in the Asker's text is sloppy and unworkable. All "partners" in the context of AIDS are "sexual partners," and it doesn't matter if the long-term relationship is "afectiva" or not. What matters is whether they are faithful to one another.

UNAIDS has published the ultimate reference on AIDS terminology and the notion of "afectivas" isn't mentioned.

The following text is copied verbatim from the online glossary:

intimate partner transmission
The term intimate partner transmission (also known by its
full name, HIV transmission **in intimate partner relationships**)
describes the transmission of HIV to individuals from their regular
partners who inject drugs, who have sex with other people,
including with sex workers, people who inject drugs, or gay men
and other men who have sex with men.

...

multiple concurrent partnerships (MCP)
People with concurrent sexual partnerships are involved
in overlapping sexual partnerships where intercourse
with one partner occurs between two acts of intercourse
with another partner. For surveillance purposes, this is
defined specifically as those occurring within the past
six months.

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4 KudoZ points awarded for this answer. Comment: "Thanks Muriel - I went with "intimate parteners" in the end, because the paper referred to UNAIDS in a few places."
+2
22 mins

romantic partners

I realise this might sound a bit naff from a certain cynical perspective, but it's actually standard for a relationship that is not just a casual or even regular sexual partner, nor a life partner, nor necessarily a long-term partner, but someone with whom one currently has an emotional relationship of greater or lesser depth, implying some degree of commitment. It's regularly used in scholarly writing on the subject. The following is specifically on American usage, but I don't think there's any difference between AmE and BrE on this:

"What’s the Best Way to Refer to a Romantic Partner?
By Mark Nichol
One of the oddities of the English language is that though many words have multiple synonyms, and we have words for many things we rarely refer to, one of the most ubiquitous concepts in American society has no name: There’s no ideal term for an unmarried party in a romantic relationship."
http://www.dailywritingtips.com/whats-the-best-way-to-refer-...

It's really what's sometimes called one's "significant other", but I wouldn't use that here myself.

"Ideal Traits of Romantic Partners, Opposite-sex Friends, and Same-sex Friends"
https://books.google.es/books?id=DNU8E4nRJZYC&pg=PA9&lpg=PA9...

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Note added at 24 mins (2016-11-15 11:31:50 GMT)
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"Another confound of the study would be the fact that most early adolescents do not have a romantic partner, as it is uncommon during this age (Carver, Joyner, and Udry 2003) [...]"
https://books.google.es/books?id=uSOUKOlAd10C&pg=PA29&lpg=PA...

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Note added at 49 mins (2016-11-15 11:56:50 GMT)
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"Our findings are consistent with previous research that indicated that MtFSM [male-to-female transgender persons who have sex with men] experience a limited availability of accepting romantic partners due to their transgender status— (Crosby & Pitts, 2007) as well as a loss of social and economic power (Kammerer, Mason, Connors, & Durkee, 2001; Kenagy, 2005; Xavier et al., 2005, among others)."
"HIV Risk Behaviors in the U.S. Transgender Population: Prevalence and Predictors in a Large Internet Sample"
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4162812/

This next one's from an article in The Lancet, so it should reflect UK usage:

"Scientific work suggests that sexual orientation in men represents a lifelong preference for sexual and romantic partners of the opposite, same, or both sexes."
"Global epidemiology of HIV infection in men who have sex with men"
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3805037/

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Note added at 54 mins (2016-11-15 12:02:12 GMT)
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I think we need a term that conveys an emotional bond and some sort of emotional commitment: something like love, in short. "Intimate" is sometimes used, but some might say that a sexual partnership is of itself an intimate partnership.
Peer comment(s):
agree neilmac : Have an agree from my friend Katie :)
10 hrs
Thank Katie from me :)
agree Richard Vranch
2 days 15 hrs
Thank you, Richard :)
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1 hr

domestic partnership

The term seems to be referring to a steady relationship, as you suggest, but "partner" on its own would seem to be quite sufficient.

Domestic partnership - Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domestic_partnership
A domestic partnership is an interpersonal relationship between two individuals who live together and share a common domestic life but are not married (to each other or to anyone else). The term is not used consistently, which results in some inter-jurisdictional confusion.
Peer comment(s):
neutral Charles Davis : But having a "pareja afectiva" doesn't necessarily mean cohabiting. It's often a boyfriend/girlfriend.
10 mins
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1 hr

partners in an affective relationship

"Affective" is a valid term in English, although not terribly common. I think it's appropriate for this type of academic paper.
Its best known usage is probably in "Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)".
Here's a sample of usage from a legal document:
"... prospective partners in an affective relationship should be given a great deal of latitude in arranging their affairs."

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Note added at 1 hr (2016-11-15 12:11:51 GMT)
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@Charles: I'm not going to post a neutral rating, but I think love/romance may be perceived as too wishy-washy or twee for an academic research paper...

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Note added at 1 hr (2016-11-15 12:12:44 GMT)
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PS: Having said that, nor am I about to throw the baby out with the bathwater and rule out the use of these terms completely.

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Note added at 1 hr (2016-11-15 12:43:11 GMT)
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http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/affective
I still consider this suitable for the register, being more formal than "romantic"...

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Note added at 1 hr (2016-11-15 12:47:09 GMT)
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"Affective relationship" gets 41,400 hits on Google, many with links to sociology/psychology and similar research papers:
http://www.rcgd.isr.umich.edu/garp/articles/eccles91l.pdf
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1194901
http://www.linguee.es/ingles-espanol/traduccion/affective re...
Reference:

http://www.repository.law.indiana.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1922&context=ilj

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/274142458_Social_acceptability_of_sexist_derogatory_and_sexist_objectifying_slurs_across_contexts

Peer comment(s):
neutral Charles Davis : Hi Neil. No problem with a neutral comment from my point of view. But this sounds translated. Check the academic literature (sociology/psychology here, not law btw), and you'll find "romantic partner" is standard; it doesn't imply roses and chocolates.
25 mins
Meh. Maybe I'm just an old cynic... :-)
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2 hrs

loving partners

A loving partner can help you sleep well, study suggests | The ...
www.independent.co.uk › News › Science
17 Aug 2016 - People sleep better alongside a loving partner who is responsive to their needs, according to a new study. The researchers studied nearly 700 ...

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Note added at 3 hrs (2016-11-15 14:08:12 GMT)
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Relaciones afectivas entre personas del mismo sexo - CQinvestigo
cqinvestigo.wdfiles.com/.../Percepciones%20de%20la%20població...
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by ÁA Molina - ‎Related articles
Loving Relationships between people of the same gender. Percepciones ... Palabras clave: Homosexualidad; Relaciones afectivas; Homofobia; percepciones.
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3 hrs

steady partners

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