FATHER'S INVOLVEMENT IN COMMUNICATING REPRODUCTIVE HEALTH ISSUES WITH MALE ADOLESCENTS IN IBADAN NORTH EAST LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA, OYO STATE, NIGERIA

Abstract

Parental Communication (PC) on Reproductive Health Issues (RHIs) with adolescents may have significant influence on their sexual behaviours. Female adolescents due to their peculiar physiological development, especially at menarche have the opportunity of discussing RHIs with their mothers but Male Adolescents (MA) do not often enjoy the privilege of this type of discussion with their fathers. Most researchers on PC in Nigeria have focussed mainly on the "mother-daughter" communication. This study was therefore conducted to assess fathers' involvement in communicating reproductive health issues with male adolescents in Ibadan North East Local Government Area (IBNELGA), Oyo State. This descriptive cross-sectional study employed a four-stage sampling technique, which involved random selection of IBNELGA, four out of 12 wards, four communities from the selected wards and 408 consenting respondents respectively. Four Focus Group Discussion (FGDs) were conducted to collect qualitative data. A semi-structured interviewer-administered questionnaire which included 18-point knowledge, 14-point attitudinal and 18-point level of involvement scales as well as questions relating to methods and factors influencing communication on RHIs, was used to collect quantitative data. Knowledge scores of ≤ 7 and >7 were categorised as negative and positive respectively. Level of involvement scores of 0-9 and >9-18 were categorised as complete and incomplete involvement respectively. Qualitative data were analaysed using thematic approach while quantitative data were analysed using descriptive statistics, Chi-square and logistic regression tests at p=0.05. The FGDs revealed that fathers were more concerned about discussion on academic and religious issues with MA than communication on RHIs. Respondents' age was 49.8±7.9 years, 41.7% had tertiary education and 49.3% were Muslims. Respondents' knowledge and attitudinal scores were 10.8±3.4 and 7.6±3.0 respectively. Fifty-two percent, 33.3% and 14.7% had fair, good and poor knowledge respectively while 65.9% had negative attitude to communicating RHIs with MA. Majority (76.7%) were passively involved in communicating RHIs with MA. Less than half (46.3%) had ever communicated on RHIs with MA and 39.3% of this percentage engaged MA in private discussion on RHIs. Only 6.2% had ever discussed use of condoms with MA. Factors preventing communication on RHIs were beliefs that discussion will encourage experimentation (65.0%) and embarrassment surrounding communication on RHIs (53.2%) with MA. More Christians (29.5%) were significantly completely involved in communication on RHls with MA compared with their Muslim counterparts (16.9%). Positive attitude was a strong predictor of involvement in communicating RHIs with MA as respondents with positive attitude 70.6% more likely to be involved in communicating RHIs with MA (OR:0.3, 95% Cl: 0.2-0.5). Most fathers had negative attitude and were incompletely involved in communicating reproductive health issues with their male adolescents. Reproductive health education interventions by both government and community based organisations could be useful in promoting positive attitude and fathers' involvement in communicating reproductive health issues with male adolescents.