Abstract:

Introduction: Many adolescents often lack strong and stable relationships with their parents to openly discuss reproductive health concerns. Parents often have the power to guide children’s development in sexual health matters, encouraging them to practice reasonable sexual behaviours.

Objective: The study aimed at ascertaining the level of involvement of parents in sexuality education of their adolescents in Hoima municipality and the associated factors.

Methodology: It was both descriptive and analytical across-sectional study and used both qualitative and quantitative methods. 213 Participants were randomly selected and interviewed using semi structured questionnaires.

Results: Most of the parents (81.7%) reported to be involved in sexuality and reproductive health education of their adolescents. Females were 1.18 times more likely to be involved in sexuality education (CPR=1.18; CI= 1.02-1.37; p-value 0.02). Parents were 1.56 times more likely to be actively involved in talking to their adolescents about sexuality education compared to other people (APR=1.56; CI= 1.22-1.99; p-value < 0.001). Having both parents were 1.22 times more likely to equally talk to their children about sexuality and reproductive health (CPR=1.22; CI=1.07-1.40; p-value= 0.004). Mothers were 1.64 times more likely to be involved in teaching their children on this subject matter than fathers (APR=1.64; CI=1.15-2.34; p-value 0.006).

Conclusion: Factors associated with parents’ involvement in sexuality education were; female headship of family, being a traditional believer and widow/widower. SRH services should, therefore, be availed in all the health units, where both adolescents and parents can easily access.

Keywords: Sexuality education, Sexual Reproductive Health (SRH) services.

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