Predictors of Adolescent Parent Communication and Safe Sexual Behaviour among In-School Adolescents

Abstract

Adolescents in communicating about their sexual and reproductive health (SRH) issues are faced with the obstacles created by expected social norms and taboos related to sexuality and gender. This study aims to determine the relationship between adolescent-parent communication and its relationship with safe sex behaviour among adolescents. The study was a descriptive cross-sectional. Data was collected from 400 adolescents in Ife-East local government using a pre-tested semi-structured questionnaire. We used a multistage sampling technique to select the required study subjects. We carried out simple frequencies and chi-square. Fifty –five percent (55.3%) of the respondents were females, while 44.8% are males. The mean age (±SD) of the participants was 15.50 ±1.55years. Of the respondents, only 37% had good knowledge of sexual and reproductive health issues, while 63% had poor knowledge of sexual and reproductive health issues. The predictors of adolescent parent communication among respondents are private schools (OR=2.546, P = 0.005, CI=1.327-4.885), Female sex (OR=12.128, P<0.001, CI=11.590 – 25.534), family size (OR=14.772, P= 0.003, CI=13.037 –20.015) and good knowledge of sexual and reproductive health issues (OR=19.521, P= 0.007, CI=19.521 –29.078). There is a statistically significant relationship between adolescent parent communication and safe sexual behaviour (X2=152.998, P <0.001, df = 1). The findings of our study revealed that adolescents were not communicating much with parents about sexual and reproductive health issues; and that there is an association between adolescent parent communication and safe sexual behaviour.