Levels of Communication about Sex in a Sample of South African Parents

BACKGROUND: South Africa has the highest HIV prevalence rates with the majority of those infected having been infected as adolescents and young adults. The purpose of this study was to examine characteristics of parents reporting low versus high levels of communication about sex with their adolescents.

METHODS: Data was derived from baseline responses to sexual communication questions from a modified version of the AdHealth Parent Questionnaire by 80 parents participating with adolescents in a pilot HIV risk reduction intervention aimed at helping parents to increase communication with and monitor their adolescents.

RESULTS: Ninety-seven percent (n=77) of participating parents were women ( mean age = 43.43, SD = ±9.95; mean # children = 3.30, SD = ±2.00). Sixty-eight percent were birth/step/adoptive mothers, and 32% were other female family members. Thirty-six percent of maternal figures reported talking “little” or “not at all” about sex with their adolescents as compared to 64% who talked more. Maternal figures who talked less were significantly more likely to be embarrassed (x2 = 4.284, df 1; p=.038), to find it difficult to give explanations (x2 = 15.329, df 1; p=.000) and to find it difficult to find a good time and place to talk about sex with their adolescents (x2 = 5.388, df 1; p=.020).

CONCLUSIONS: The findings identify communication barriers among maternal figures who communicated less about sex with their adolescent children. Interventions increasing parental HIV prevention knowledge may be promising to reduce parent-child communication barriers and empowering maternal figures as sexual-health educators for their adolescents.