Barriers of Discussion Concerning Sexual and Reproductive Health Issues Among Adolescents and Parents, Hawassa, SNNPR, Ethiopia

Abstract

Background: Adolescence is a period of high developmental changes in physical, mental and social conditions. In this period the adolescent youth fails to control their emotions, listen to parents' advice and begins to indulge them in unhealthy behavioral activities. In general, the age group from 10 to 19 years is classified as adolescent. Many adolescents often lack strong and stable relationships with their parents to openly discuss about reproductive health concerns. Similarly, about 55.7% of the secondary and preparatory school students were not discussed on SRH issues.Objective: To assess the barriers of discussion among adolescents concerning sexual and reproductive health issues among Preparatory Schools students of Hawassa City, SNNPR, Ethiopia.Methods: -Descriptive cross sectional survey design was conducted among Addis Ketema and Tabor preparatory schools students in Hawassa City, from December to June 2016. Then a multistage sampling technique was employed to select 344 eligible study participants, the data were collected by using closed ended questionnaire and analyzed.Result: -The majority (61%) of respondents did not discused sexual matters with their parents. The results of binary logistic regression revealed that, the adolescents who follow social media (B=1.497, p< 0.05), use condom (B=2.296, p< 0.05), father education (B=2.398, p< 0.05) and mother education (B=1.582, p< 0.05) have positive and significant effect on discussion between the parents and adolescents on SRH issues. Culture of adolescents and parents regarding sex related issues whereas, ever had experienced sexual pleasure (B=-1.466, p< 0.01), amount of money the adolescent got monthly (B= -2.127, p< 0.01), talk to friend about sex related issues(B=-2.361, p< 0.01), and feel shame to talk to family about sex related issues (B=-0.868, p< 0.05) have negative and significant effect on discussion between the adolescents and parents regarding sex related issues. Conclusion:The major factors that hindered parent-adolescent discussion were ever had experienced sexual pleasure, follow social media, use condom, parent education, amount of money given to adolescents, talk to friends about sex related issue, and feel shame. Furthermore, parents had limited access to sexuality information which could perpetuate beliefs, taboos and negative attitudes that hindered them from discussing sexual matters with adolescents.

Parental communication on sexual and reproductive health issues and its associated factors among preparatory school students in Debre Tabor, Northcentral Ethiopia: institution based cross-sectional study

“…This finding indicated that parents are not open to their children in discussion related to SRH which leads young people to feel embraced in discussion of sexual related issues. The finding of this study is consistent with studies conducted in Hawassa, Ethiopia [23] and Johannesburg, South Africa [21]. In the same manner, family size where the study participants live was found to be significantly associated with discussion on SRH issues.…”

Parent-adolescent communication about Sexual and Reproductive Health Issues and Associated Factors among Mothers in Wogdie District, North Ethiopia

“…(21,24,31,32), But this nding higher than studies conducted in Awabel (25.3%) and Mizan (28.9%) this might due to time variation and socio demographic difference like in Awabel the magnitude of urban population was 23.9% which is lower than the study area and in Mizan about 57.3% of populations were unable to read and write which is higher than the study area (33,34). This nding is lower than stuies conducted in Yirgalem (59.1%), Debre-markos (36.9%), Dire-dawa (37%), Hawassa (61%), South Africa (57%), Ghana (72.8%) and Mynamar (62%) this might due to study area difference (these studies conducted at institution but this study was community based), lower illiteracy rate (Debre-markos 20.5%, Yirgalem 7.4%, and Dire-dawa 20.5% and Myanmar 6.3%) and more urbanized (Mekelle 84.9%, Hawassa 73.2%) (4,5,7,20,23,35,36).…”

“…Studies conducted in Ethiopia focus on from the adolescent perspective (there are evidences which showed that when adolescent asks about communication most of them are said yes, but when the parent asks about communication the result is different this results wrongly determination of magnitude of parent-adolescent communication), conducted in urban residence and institution based (4,21,(23)(24)(25).…”

Adolescent Girl–Mother Communication on Sexual and Reproductive Health Issues Among Students in Fiche Town, Oromia, Central Ethiopia

“…Factors related to adolescent-parent communication have been documented to be (for the adolescent): experience of sexual pleasure, following social media, using a condom, talking to friends about sex-related issues, and feeling ashamed of talking about sexual issue. 7 …”

“…6 Factors related to adolescent-parent communication have been documented to be (for the adolescent): experience of sexual pleasure, following social media, using a condom, talking to friends about sex-related issues, and feeling ashamed of talking about sexual issue. 7 Measuring both mothers' and daughters' perception of communication on sexual behaviors can provide insights into family characteristics that may be important targets for sexual health promotion programs for adolescent girls. 8 Almost all studies conducted in Ethiopia focused on adolescent-parent communication in general, 5,[9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16] while this study addressed daughter-mother communication, which is critical in addressing gender-specific concerns problems like unwanted pregnancy and abortion.…”