Family background characteristics and parent-adolescent communication on sexuality: the case of Nairobi

Abstract

The purpose of this investigation was to establish the association between fami ly background characteristics and the flow of information on sex related matters from parents to their adolescent offspring with special reference to the city of Nairobi. The family background characteristics examined were broadly classified into socio-economic, demographic and control factors. The socio-economic and control factors were measured by parents' educational attainment and parental power base (locus of household authority) respectively while demographic factors included sex of the parent in the household, number of siblings, premarital pregnancy status of the mother, a daughter's premarital pregnancy status and a son's involvement in premarital pregnancy. The required data was obtained from a sample of 200 high school students aged 15-19 years within Nairobi province, Kenya, by means of self-administered semi-structured questionnaires. Frequency tables and bar graphs are used to display the results. The Chisquare tests are also performed to reveal the significance of the associations between the examined variables. Only the sex of the parent in the household as well as premarital pregnancy status of the mother and a daughter in the family is found to be significantly associated with parent adolescent communication on sexuality. It is therefore concluded that some socioeconomic and demographic factors -within the family environment influence parent adolescent communication on sexuality. On the basis of the study findings, it is recommended that interventions Oft parent-adolescent communication on sex related matters should emphasis structures that promote .marital stability as well as sensitizing parents with high formal educational attainment on the need to be open with their adolescent children on matters related to sex.