Background
Evidence
suggests that in spite of some adolescents being sexually active, many parents
do not discuss sex-related issues with them due to lack of age-appropriate
respectful vocabulary and skills. The likelihood of parent-adolescent
communication improving sexual and reproductive health outcomes appears
plausible. The desire to understand parent-adolescent communication and how to
improve it for promotion of healthy sexual behaviours inspired this research.
The paper is meant to describe perceptions of adolescents, parents and school
administrators about parent-adolescent communication on sexual issues; describe
the content of such communication and identify factors that influence this
communication.
Methods
The
study was done among two urban and two rural secondary school students in their
second year of education. Data were collected from 11 focus group discussions
and 10 key Informants Interviews. Data management, analysis and interpretation
followed thematic analysis principles. Illuminating verbatim quotations are
used to illustrate findings.
Results
Parental
warmth and acceptability of children was perceived by parents to be
foundational for a healthy adolescent- parent communication. Perceptions of
adolescents tended to point to more open and frequent communication with
mothers than fathers and to cordial relationships with mothers. Fathers were
perceived by adolescents to be strict, intimidating, unapproachable and
unavailable. While adolescents tended to generally discuss sexual issues with
mothers, male adolescents communicated less with anyone on sex, relationships
and condoms. Much of the parent-adolescent communication was perceived to focus
on sexually transmitted infections and body changes. Discussions of sex and
dating with adolescents were perceived to be rare. Common triggers of sexuality
discussions with female adolescents were; onset of menstruation and perceived
abortion in the neighbourhood. Discussion with male adolescents, if it occurred
was perceived to be triggered by parental suspicion of having female ‘friends’
or coming home late. Peers at school and mass media were perceived to the main
source of sexuality information.
Conclusions
Communication
on sexuality issues between parents and their adolescent children was
infrequent and critical elements like sex and specifics of protection against
undesirable sexual behaviour consequences were avoided. Peers, schools and mass
media should be creatively harnessed to improve parent-adolescent communication
about sexuality issues.
Full article at:
By:
1Department of Psychiatry, Makerere
University College of Health Sciences, School of Medicine, Kampala, Uganda
2Child Health and Development Centre,
Makerere University College of Health Sciences, School of Medicine, Kampala,
Uganda
3University of Calgary, Global Health &
International Partnerships, Faculty of Medicine, 2500 University Drive NW,
Calgary T2N 1 N4, AB, Canada
4Institute of Basic Medical Sciences, Faculty
of Medicine, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway
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