Barriers of Parent-Adolescent Communication on Sexual and Reproductive Health Issues among Secondary and Preparatory School Students in Yirgalem, Town, South Ethiopia

Abstract

Background: Nowadays sexuality and reproduction are the most fundamental parts of life, but because of cultural and political sensitivities, they often get little attention in public policy discussion. Parent-adolescent communication about sexual issues remains a challenging issue in Ethiopia as the social banned in many traditional communities still limit such communication. This study assessed factors to hinder adolescent-parent communication on sexual and reproductive health issues among high school students in Yirgalem town, South Ethiopia, 2015. Methods: Institution based cross sectional study was conducted among high school students in Yirgalem town Sidama Zone from February to March 2015. Simple random sampling technique was used to select 684 students from 9–12 grades. Qualitative data were collected through focus group discussion separately for female and male parents. Data were entered using Epi Info version 3.5.1 was exported and analyzed by SPSS version 20. Bivariate and multivariate logistic regressions were used to identify independent predictors of adolescent- parent communications. Results: Three hundred ninety (59.1%) respondents discussed sexual and reproductive health issues with parents. Adolescents who preferred mother to communicate 3.7 times more likely unwanted pregnancy than father [AOR=3.797, 95% CI: 1.109, 8.434]. Parents 2.6 times didn’t discuss on unwanted pregnancy because of shameful than others [AOR=2.677, 95% CI: 1.095-6.545]. Conclusion and recommendation: In this study parent-adolescent communications on sexual and reproductive health issues were low. So that it is crucial to build up a nationwide adolescent sexual and reproductive health and improvement strategy to implement in school, family and community level to increase parent-adolescent communication