Religion of parents and communication on adolescents’ sexuality in Southwest Nigeria

Abstract

Risky sexual behaviour among adolescents has increased considerably. The situation has resulted in the early sexual debut of the young ones, engagement with multiple partners and adolescent pregnancy among adolescents in Nigeria and the Sub-Saharan in general. This is not unconnected with inadequate and uni-directional, weak and autocratic communication channels about sexuality within the family. Adolescents may seek information about sexuality from distorted, incomplete and unreliable information sources, such as the social media, peers, novels, music and magazines. This behaviour has resulted in gaps in communication, and which have had long-term consequences on their health and wellbeing. This study examined the influence of parent’s religion on sexual conversation by parents with their adolescents. A descriptive research design was adopted. Sample size was seven hundred and twenty-one (721) parents of adolescents selected through a multistage sampling technique from three (3) Southwest States in Nigeria. Data were collected using questionnaire. Analyses of data were done using descriptive and inferential statistics. Findings revealed that (16.7%) of parents had poor level of communication on sexuality with their adolescents, (23.1%) parents had an average level of communication on sexuality, while, a good number (60.2%) of parents had good level of communication on sexuality with their adolescents. In addition, the religion of parents significantly influenced discussions on adolescents’ sexuality. There is need for parents to give sexual health information to adolescents and communicate with their adolescents on sex-related issues. They need to overcome inhibitions in discussing sex-related matters with their children from childhood.