Assessment of the Prevalence, Attitudes, and Barriers to Parent-Adolescent Sexual Communication in Osun State

Abstract

Adolescent sexuality remains one of the most neglected areas of young people's development in Nigeria. Thus, adverse reproductive health outcomes such as sexually transmitted infections, unplanned pregnancies, unsafe abortion, maternal morbidity and mortality are recurrent deaths among this population. This study was anchored on Rational Choice Theory and investigated sexuality education among parent-adolescent dyads in-school adolescents in Ile-Ife with a view to understanding the magnitude, attitude and barriers to parent-child communication on sexual matters. Data were collected through 842 questionnaires administered to adolescents and their parents selected through a multi-stage sampling technique. Findings revealed that the prevalence of parent-adolescent communication on sexual matters was 55.8% among parents, while 43.0% of the adolescents indicated that they practised sexual and reproductive health communication. Both parents and adolescents had a positive attitude towards open and comprehensive sexual education. Prioritising sexuality education among adolescents can go a long way in demystifying unnecessary insensitivity that pervades sexuality discourses among Nigerian youth.