| dc.description.abstract | Aims: To identify with whom in-school adolescents preferred to communicate about sexuality, and to study adolescents’
communication on HIV/AIDS, abstinence and condoms with parents/guardians, other adult family members, and teachers.
Methods: Data were obtained from a baseline questionnaire survey carried out in South Africa (Cape Town and Mankweng)
and Tanzania (Dar es Salaam) in early 2004. We analysed data for 14,944 adolescents from 80 randomly selected schools. The
mean ages were as follows: Cape Town, 13.38 years (standard deviation (SD) 1.15); Mankweng, 13.94 years (SD 1.35); and Dar es
Salaam, 12.94 years (SD 1.31). Results: Adolescent females preferred to receive sexuality information from their mothers, while
among males there was a higher preference for fathers in two sites. Thirty-seven per cent, 41% and 29% reported never or hardly
ever communicating about sexuality with parents, other adult family members, and teachers, respectively. ‘‘Silence’’ was more
prevalent in Dar es Salaam than in the other two sites. The odds of ‘‘never or hardly ever’’ communicating with parents in
Dar es Salaam were higher among girls than among boys (p < 0.01). For the two South African sites, boys had significantly
higher odds of experiencing silence than did girls (both p < 0.001), and socioeconomic status was positively associated
with parent–adolescent sexuality communication. In the logistic regression models, explained variation (Nagelkerke’s R2
)
across sites ranged from 0.013 to 0.032. Conclusions: In all three sites, a substantial proportion of adolescents
reported not communicating with their parents about HIV/AIDS, abstinence, or condoms. The low proportion of
explained variation in sexuality communication implies that silence is common across sociodemographic
subgroups. | en_US |
