Parent Training and Parent-Adolescent Communication about Sexuality in Accra Metropolis, Ghana
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Date
2014-07
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University of Ghana
Abstract
Background: Talking about sexual issues with children is a difficult task for most parents. This is because most parents are not trained to talk to their children about sexual issues. Many parents also lack the knowledge and skills to talk to their children about sexual issues. Evidence shows that intervention studies that trained parents on how to communicate with their children about sexuality have shown positive results. Training parents to talk to their adolescents about sexual issues will reduce sexual risk behaviours among adolescents and young people.
Objective: To assess the effects of training parents on parent-adolescent communication about sexuality in the Accra Metropolis, Ghana.
Methods: An intervention study which consisted of 138 parent-adolescent pairs from 12 public Junior High Schools in two sub-metropolises in the Accra Metropolis answered baseline survey on parent-adolescent communication on sexual topics and were put into intervention and control groups (intervention group, 73 parent-adolescent pairs in 6 schools; control group, 72 parent-adolescent pairs in 6 schools). Parents and adolescents completed a follow up survey of questionnaires on parent-adolescent discussion about sexual topics three months after the programme.
Results: The proportion of parents with very good knowledge increased more in the intervention group (37.0% to 60.0%) than the control group (27.7% to 34.7%). After the training, the parents in the intervention group (30.1% to 82.9%) had better attitudes towards adolescents’ use of reproductive health services than the control group. The proportion of parents in the intervention group who ever discussed sexual topics with their sons increased (60.3% to 88.6%) after the training. Most parents in both in the intervention (54.4%) and control (51.4%) groups would like to start
talking to their children about sexual issues when the child is between 10 and 12 years old after the intervention. Mothers discussed more sexual topics with adolescents on all the categories of sexual topics than fathers. Sexual discussions focused mostly on sexual risk protection and risky sexual topics.
Conclusion: The training increased the parents’ knowledge about sexuality, their ability and frequency of discussing sexual topics with their children. The training also improved the parents’ attitudes towards adolescent sexual issues.
Key words: Adolescents, parents, sexuality, intervention and communication.
Description
Thesis(Phd) -University of Ghana, 2014