Parents perspectives and their involvement in Reproductive Health Education of their in-school adolescents in Soroti Municipality, Uganda.

Abstract

The study investigated parents’ perspectives and their involvement in reproductive health education of their in-school adolescents in Soroti Municipality, Uganda. Three specific objectives that guided the study were; frequency of parent-adolescent communications about RH, parents’ monitoring of adolescents’ RH behaviors, and parents’ content preference for RH education to in-school adolescents in Soroti Municipality. Qualitative and quantitative approaches were employed through a cross sectional survey design that yielded 218 randomly sampled parents of in-school adolescents in; Girls’ boarding, Boys’ boarding, Mixed day and Mixed boarding schools. Data were collected between September 2012 and November 2012 using self-administered questionnaires (α = 0.88) and interview guides. The variables of the study were tested using Pearson correlation co-efficient index and one way ANOVA at ≤ 0.5 using SPSS 13.0. The findings of the study revealed positive significant relationship between parent-adolescent communication (r = 0.194, P- value 0.004), monitoring behavior (r = 0.497, P-value 0.000) and their involvement in RHE of in-school adolescents. The findings also revealed variations in parents’ content preference (F = 2.066, P = 0.007). Parents’ involvements in their ARHE are constrained by; religious and cultural restrictions, feeling of shame, poor communication skills, inadequate knowledge together with issues that are difficult to monitor. Conclusions were that; there is a positive significant relationship between parent-adolescent communication, monitoring adolescent behaviors, and there are variations in parent content preference. Parents have challenges to ARHE involvements that need to be overcome. From the study findings it was recommended; coordinated documentation of monitoring activities by parents and teachers, emphasizing affective curriculum, use of opinion leaders, training parents communication skills and more gaps to be researched on.