Assessment of Parent-Adolescent Communication on Sexual and Reproductive Health Matters in Awassa Town, Snnpr, Ethiopia
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Date
2009-07
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Addis Abeba Universty
Abstract
Introduction- Sexual and reproductive health problems of adolescents in Ethiopia are rising from time to
time. This may be associated with early sexual initiation. Different researches done in different countries
had showed that good family communication regarding sexual risk behavior has been positively associated
with a delay in sexual activity. There are different factors affecting communication between parents and
adolescents regarding SRH issues which are uncovered.
Objective- The study is done in an attempt to identify those factors and the influence of parent-adolescent
communication on sexual and reproductive health of students Methodology- A cross-sectional descriptive
study involving 694 randomly selected students among four high schools in Awassa, Ethiopia. A pretested
structured anonymous questionnaire was used to collect quantitative data, which was entered,
cleaned and analyzed using SPSS version 11.0 statistical package. Qualitative information was obtained
from four focus group discussions and sixteen peer-to-peer interviews segregated by gender. A binary
logistic regression analysis was used to asses the impact of determinants.
Results- Two hundred five (30.4%) of the students discussed with either of their parents in at least two
topics of SRH. Nevertheless, most of the respondents preferred to discuss SRH issue with their
peers/friends than their parents.
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Mother being literate [OR=1.63; 95%CI=1.17, 2.27], adolescents’ having knowledge on STI,
contraceptive, fertile period during menstrual cycle and emergency contraceptive [OR=2.56; 95%CI=1.51,
4.62, OR=2.17; 95%CI= 1.32, 3.53, OR=1.57; 95%CI=1.13, 2.18 and OR=2.58 95%CI=1.84, 3.63
respectively] were associated with communication of parent and adolescents on SRH.
The most reported factor that affects communication between parents and adolescents on SRH issues were
shamefulness, parents’ lack of knowledge and that the issue is culturally unacceptable.
Both males and females were more comfortable to discuss sexual and reproductive health issues with
mother. There is significant difference across gender where more females being comfortable discussion
with mother [OR=2.37; 95%CI= 1.60, 3.49]
Conclusion and recommendation- The overall research finding shows that communication on SRH
issues promotes healthy behaviors of adolescent. Nevertheless, there is low communication between
parent and adolescent on different SRH issues with different reasons for not discussing.
Hence, based on the findings obtained in this study it is recommended that comprehensive family life
education (FLE) should be initiated for the students and parents in school, home, religious institution, and
health facilities for effective communication to occur on SRH. In addition programs working in ASRH
should include parents to address parental influences on adolescents’ reproductive health and work to
alleviate those factors which affect communication between parent and adolescents. Additional research
needs to explore the influence of parent –adolescent communication on SRH issues on adolescent
reproductive health especially using analytical studies.
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Assessment of Parent-Adolescent Communication on Sexual