Abstract
This paper explores the structural role of the family and parenting in young people's sexual and reproductive health. The study involved eight weeks of participant observation, 26 in-depth interviews, and 11 group discussions with young people aged 14–24 years, and 20 in-depth interviews and 6 group discussions with parents/carers of children in this age group. At an individual level, parenting and family structure were found to affect young people's sexual behaviour by influencing children's self-confidence and interactional competence, limiting discussion of sexual health and shaping economic provision for children, which in turn affected parental authority and daughters' engagement in risky sexual behaviour. Sexual norms are reproduced both through parents' explicit prohibitions and their own behaviours. Girls are socialised to accept men's superiority, which shapes their negotiation of sexual relationships. Interventions to improve young people's sexual and reproductive health should recognise the structural effects of parenting, both in terms of direct influences on children and the dynamics by which structural barriers such as gendered power relations and cultural norms around sexuality are transmitted across generations.
Highlights
As young people continue to experience sexual and reproductive health (SRH) risks such as unplanned pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections (STIs), including HIV, much effort to improve their SRH, both in high- and low-income countries, has aimed to change the personal behaviours that put individuals at risk
Design The data reported on here come from an ethnographic study conducted in rural northern Tanzania in 2007 that explored the influence of families, parenting practices and socioeconomic circumstances on young people’s sexual behaviour
The majority of the young people reported that they lived with both parents, but the presence of parents in the household varied considerably
Summary
As young people continue to experience sexual and reproductive health (SRH) risks such as unplanned pregnancy and sexually transmitted infections (STIs), including HIV, much effort to improve their SRH, both in high- and low-income countries, has aimed to change the personal behaviours that put individuals at risk. Individual choices regarding SRH are constrained by economic, legal, political, religious or other cultural factors at a macro level. If these structural elements remain unchanged, there is limited scope for changes of knowledge, norms, intentions or skills at an individual level to have much effect (Gupta et al 2008; Padian et al 2011). We construe parenting as being not just individual behaviours, but a set of shared norms, beliefs, and practices that are institutionalised and operate at a structural level.
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