Assessing parental influence on adolescent sexual behaviour in the Bantama-Metro

Abstract

Introduction According to the WHO, adolescence is defined as a period of life between 10-19 years. It is a unique period of age characterized by significant physical, cognitive, emotional and social changes. Parents-adolescent’s influence is vital for the outright growth and development in all aspects including sexual and reproductive health. However, parents-adolescence communication on sexual issues, supervision and monitoring and provision of basic needs are sometimes lacked. The lack of these often result in a larger proportion of adolescents engaging in unhealthy or risky sexual behavior. Thus, the purpose of this study was to assess the influence of parents in adolescent sexual behavior. Methods A cross-sectional study was conducted among 400 adolescents aged 10-19 years in the Bantama-metro. A structured questionnaire was used to assess sociodemographics of respondents, sources of information regarding reproductive health, parental roles, adolescent’s knowledge on sexual and reproductive health and sexual behavior. Simple random sampling was employed to select participants. Data in the questionnaires was coded and entered using MS Excel Version 2016 for windows and then exported to Stata Version 14.0 for analysis. The mean, standard deviation, percentages and cross tabulations were used for the descriptive analysis. Results A total of 400 adolescents aged 10-19 participated in the study. There was high knowledge on condom use (67.25%) and adolescent’s main source of information on sexual and reproductive health was from peers (26.25%).vii Academics issues were mostly discussed between parents and adolescents (52.50%) whilst sexual and reproductive health issues were the least discussed (3.75%). The study found that, more than half (61.75%) were not sexually active, however, among those who were sexually active, majority (76.54%) used a condom and about one - tenth had multiple partners. Conclusion Poor parental relationship with their children in matters related to sexual and reproductive health as they enter adolescent were high in this study. Adolescence knowledge on emergency contraceptives, birth control pills were low compared to knowledge on condom use, abortion services and STIs including HIV/AIDS. Adoption of behavioral change strategies such as family gathering, real lifestyle experience story-telling would enable adolescents have cordial relationships with their parents. Health facilities should intensify their education on long lasting family planning services and emergency contraceptive pills for adolescents. Comprehensive health education about sexual and reproductive health should be infused into the school curriculum to enable adolescents have adequate knowledge on sexual issues.