Do parents and young people communicate on sexual matters? the situation of family life education (FLE) in a rural town in Ethiopia

As a result of a cultural taboo, adolescents in many developing countries rarely discuss sexual matters explicitly with their parents. Most information for their patchy knowledge often comes from peers of the same sex, who may themselves be uninformed or incorrectly informed. This report is a summary of two surveys carried out on two occasions (November 1996 and October 1997, respectively) on 343 high school students and 246 families who had children 10-24 years of age in a rural town 160 Km south of Addis Ababa. The purpose was to assess the awareness and attitude of both study groups on major Family Life Education (FLE) components and know the level of parent-adolescent communication on matters related to young people’s sexuality. Findings suggest that young people’s knowledge on aspects of their sexuality is incomplete and not enough to minimise risk-taking. Yet, more than half of them believed that is unacceptable to discuss growth changes and sexual issues with parents during adolescence. Different grade and age levels did not influence the consensus except for a female sex, which significantly favoured this negative attitude. For some who approved discussion (sexual matters and contraception), peers were preferred most. Furthermore, 31.5% of the students were sexually active, and 65.7% of the sexually active ones reported use of some contraception (including calendar method) in the past. Likewise, parents had a partial knowledge regarding adolescent sexual maturation and behaviour or complication of teenage pregnancy. Nonetheless, 93% did not approve premarital sex and ironically, not more than 20% of them reported discussion of growth changes during adolescence, sexuality, and contraception in the past. However, parental education and lower family size positively influenced this attitude and practice. Implications of the study were discussed and recommendations made on future needs to initiate a comprehensive FLE in the school system and increase the responsibility of parents in adolescent sexuality. [Ethiop. J. Health Dev. 1999;13(3):205-210] Background Family Life Education is the type of education an individual receives to prepare him/her for adult life. It includes education about the family, human growth and development, adolescent problems (health and disease), sexuality, family planning, and responsible parenthood, etc (1). World Health _______________________________________ Department of Community Health, Faculty of Medicine, P.O. Box 9086 Addis Ababa University, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia; Senior Medical Students, Faculty of Medicine, Addis Ababa University, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia Organisation (WHO) defined adolescence (10-19 years) as progression from appearance of secondary sexual characteristics to sexual and reproductive maturity, development of adult mental process and identity, and transition from total socioeconomic dependence to relative independence Do parents and young people communicate on sexual matters? 2 ──────────────────────────────────────────────────────────── (2). Adolescents comprise about a quarter or more of developing countries' populations and this figure appears to be on the increase for the next three decades to comeInformation as a valuable means to delay an early initiation of sex in adolescents should have started early at home by the family and primary school teachers. However, the fact that families in rural communities are either not knowledgable about the subject matter or due to their nature of extendedness, they are not able to give due consideration to the importance of educating young boys and girls on sexuality, parenthood, and other matters. Moreover, such matters are often viewed as a sign of eroded societal values and norms and thus are not welcomed by traditional societies (3,4,5). Policy-makers and the school community, on the other hand, seem to have understood the difficulties only late. This situation, when coupled with the cultural taboos in poor countries that influence decision-making on sensitive issues, such as adolescent sexuality, makes inclusion of Family Life Education (FLE) into school curricula a tough challenge. It is with such a dilemma that we face horrifying figures on the growing rates of illness and death from clandestine abortions, STI’s, and HIV/AIDS, and their remaining social and economic consequences today. The following report is a summary of two surveys carried out on two different occasions in Zway, a rural town located 160 km south-east of Addis Ababa. It was done on high school students and families who have children in the age range of 10-24 years. The purpose was to assess their awareness status and attitude on adolescent sexuality, teen-age pregnancy and its complication, HIV/AIDS and STI, etc (essential components of FLE). These surveys have also attempted to assess the attitude and behaviour regarding parent-youth communication on reproductive health matters at home environment and level of young peoples’ sexuality. Methods Two cross-sectional surveys were carried out in November 1996 and October 1997, on high school students and parents (mostly family heads) who had children aged 10-24 years in Zway, a rural town 160km south of Addis Ababa. A statistically representative sample size was calculated with a 95% significant level and a power of 80% in each case. Multi-stage stratified sampling method was used to obtain study subjects from a list of student rosters in the school (students) and kebele (smallest administrative unit) residents registers in the town (parents). Both students and parents were provided with self-administered a structured questionnaire that was filled anonymously. In both cases, an informed consent was initially obtained. Cultural sanctions on the sensitive nature of the issue were taken care of for parents by gender aggregation of the interviewee and interviewers. Data were collected by senior medical students. Analysis was made using EPIINFO version 6 statistical software. Results General: Three hundred and forty-three students and 246 adult subjects were studied. Table 1 shows some of the sociodemographic characteristics of the parents. Students were from 9 to 12 th grades, constituting 38.8% (9), 28.6% (10), 21.9% (11), and 10.8% Table 1: Sociodemographic characteristics of the parents, Zway, 1996-97. Variables Frequency N= 246 Percent Relation to the youth under