Assessment of Parent-Adolescent Communication on Sexual and Reproductive Health Matters in Awassa Town, Snnpr, Ethiopia
Creators: name: Fikre, Martha
Publisher: name: National Academic Digital Repository of Ethiopia
Year: 2009

description: 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. 7 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.