Parental communication on sexual and reproductive health issues to their adolescents and affecting factors at Asella town, Ethiopia: a community-based, cross-sectional study

Abstract

Plain language summary Parent communication on sexual and reproductive health (SRH) with their adolescent is one of the potential sources of information for adolescents on the issues. Agreed that adolescents in Ethiopia are faced with increasing SRH-related risks, it is important to understand how parents communicate about SRH to their adolescents from the parents’ perspectives. A community based cross-sectional study targeting parents was conducted at eight (8) kebeles of Asella town, Arsi zone, Ethiopia based on an interview survey. Three hundred forty seven (347) parents having children of 10–19 years in the selected household were included. The majority of the parents, 82.4%, agreed on the need for discussions with their adolescents and 72% had a good knowledge of SRH issues. However in this study, the level of parent-adolescent discussion on SRH issues was very low, 23.1%. The find showed that the main reason for not talking with their adolescents; perceived it may initiate adolescent for sexual practice, culturally unacceptable, shame/taboo, lack of awareness and being too busy. Also, the probability of discussion was found to be significantly higher among parents who had completed some form of education, parents who had good knowledge and positive attitude towards SRH issues as compared with those who didn’t have good knowledge and positive attitude on the topic. This study suggests conducting qualitative research investigating the socio-cultural context within which the SRH communications happen.

Keywords

• Adolescent
• Communications
• Parent
• Reproductive health