ABSTRACT
Introduction: Sexually transmitted infections have increased sharply among adolescents both locally and internationally in recent years. Parents play an important role in their children’s sexual health development. An integral part of this includes effective parent-child sexuality communication.
Materials and Methods: A nationwide cross-sectional community-based household survey was conducted in Singapore between August 2008 and March 2009 to assess parents’/caregivers’ attitudes and practices regarding caregiver-child sexuality communication. With an overall response rate of 81.4%, 1169 questionnaires from parents/caregivers of children aged 10 to 17 years were analysed. Results: Almost all (94.2%) the caregivers were parents. A majority (>80%) of caregivers considered talking to their children about sexuality issues such as abstinence, consequences of premarital sex and condom use as important. However, a significantly lower percentage (about 60%) felt comfortable and confident doing so. Only 8.3% among them discussed sexual health issues with their children very often, 37.2% sometimes, 22.0% seldom/hardly ever (once or twice) and 32.5% never, in the past year. In the multivariate analysis, caregiver-child sexuality communication was significantly associated with caregivers’ relationship to children, ethnicity, educational level, and their perceived levels of comfort and confidence in sexuality communication. Conclusion: Caregivers generally felt it was important but were significantly much less comfortable and confident talking about sexuality issues with their children, which leads to a lower frequency of caregiver-child sexuality communication. Educational programmes on adolescent sexual health targeting parents/caregivers are needed. They must be equipped with skills and provided with resources to enable them to talk to their adolescent children about sexuality.HIV/AIDS is now the third leading cause of disease burden worldwide. Risky sexual behaviours acquired during adolescence, such as early sexual initiation, unprotected intercourse, and multiple sexual partners, can place young people at risk of HIV infections and sexually transmitted infections (STIs). About 50% of new HIV infections and 30% of new STIs worldwide occur among youth aged 15 to 24 years. In Singapore, there has been a sharp increase in the incidence of STIs among adolescents aged 10 to 19 years from 250 cases (3.1% of total cases) in 2002 to 787 (7% of total cases) in 2008. Recent studies on adolescents’ attitudes towards sex in Asian countries found a permissive attitude on premarital sex. For example, 45.1% of male and 27.5% of female college students in Shanghai, China were open to premarital sex. One-third of Indian male youth reported that it was acceptable to engage in premarital sex. It was also found that adolescents who had permissive attitudes regarding sex were more likely to engage in risky sexual behaviours in future.
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