Communication between Adolescents and their Parents on Sexual Risk-Taking Behaviours and Facilitating factors in Rwanda.

BACKGROUND

Younger generation engages in sexual activities that often result in early pregnancies, unsafe abortions, sexual abuse, and sexually transmitted infections. Parent-adolescent communication could be a sustainable solution to improved adolescent reproductive health.

OBJECTIVE

To determine factors facilitating adolescent communication with the parents on sexual risk-taking behaviours.

METHODS

A cross-sectional study design was used with a sample of 199 adolescents. A self-administered questionnaire through a simple random sampling technique was employed, and participation was voluntary. Descriptive and inferential statistics were performed using the Statistical Package for Social Science (IBM-Version 21).

RESULTS

The adolescents who never spoke to their mothers on sexual risk activities were 20.1%. The factors that facilitated adolescent communication with their parents about sex risk behaviours were: age of adolescents (r = -0.166, p = 0.023), living arrangement of adolescents (r = 0.147, p = 0.045), Having home mate brothers and sisters (r = 0.142, p = 0.05) and living with grandparents (r = 0.220, p = 0.003).

CONCLUSION

Parents' time to interact with their adolescent children was insufficient. There are numerous factors that positively and negatively influence parent-adolescent communication on sexual risk behaviors. General communication was found to be an important facet and a strategy to conveying reproductive and sexual issues to adolescents by the parents.