Parenting Styles and Parent-Offspring Communication on Sexuality Issues

Summary

The main objective of the study was to develop a novel intervention method which could reduce the spread of Sexually Transmitted Infections (including HIV) and unwanted pregnancies by improving parent-child communication using schools as gateways.

It was done in 22 public day and mixed secondary schools in both Kampala and Wakiso districts. The study employed a cluster randomized controlled trial experimental design. Eligible schools were purposively selected and stratified into urban, peri-urban and rural. The schools were then matched into pairs for potential confounding variables such as religion and gender. In total, 11 schools were randomly allocated to the intervention and an equal number of schools to the comparison arms of the study.

A questionnaire was administered to students at baseline and post-intervention. This questionnaire was validated in test re-test on approximately 200 S1 students from 2 schools that did not participate in the intervention nor the comparison arm. A parents'/guardians' questionnaire was also administered both at baseline then at post intervention. This questionnaire was also pre-tested among approximately 200 parents of S1 students who participated in the test re-test. The results of the pre-test were used to finalize the questionnaire. To increase the extent to which questions were understood, the English versions of questionnaires were translated into one of the widely spoken local language Luganda.

Conditions

• Delay in Sexual Debut Among Adolescents
• Knowledge About Condom Use
• Parent-child Communication, Frequency and Quality

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Classroom-based component

Selected topics about sex, communication, and relationships were integrated in 8 English classroom lessons and 8 Christian Religious Education classroom lessons. The component was implemented in a period of 14 weeks in Senior One classrooms of all the 11 intervention schools.

BEHAVIORAL

STI/HIV prevention education

For this component, the project partnered with Naguru Teenage information and Health Centre a local NGO providing "youth friendly" Sexual Reproductive Health services. The STI/HIV prevention education was implemented once in each school on a day that had been agreed upon with the school administration.

BEHAVIORAL

Homework assignment component

This component was to facilitate open parent-child interactions and encourage interpersonal learning in a friendly home environment about selected Sexual Reproductive Health issues. Homework assignments were developed on the basis of the topics covered in the learners' component. Students were asked to discuss each assignment with their parents/guardians and recorded answers in 32 paged exercise books provided by the project which were eventually handed over to the researchers at the end of the intervention. Students were given 8 English homework assignments and 7 Christian Religious Education homework assignments.

BEHAVIORAL

Parenting component

Three one day parenting workshops were conducted in each of the 11 schools for parents/guardians during the period in which the lessons were being implemented. First workshop was conducted at the beginning of the intervention, the second in the middle of the intervention and the third at the end of the intervention. Each workshop in a school was facilitated by one selected teacher and one selected parent in the school. In the first workshop a brochure about the intervention was distributed to all the parents/guardians in attendance.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• University of Bergen

  collaborator OTHER

• University of Oslo

  collaborator OTHER

• University of Cape Town

  collaborator OTHER

• University of Limpopo

  collaborator OTHER

• Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences

  collaborator OTHER

• Maastricht University

  collaborator OTHER

• University of Sussex

  collaborator OTHER

• Child Health & Development Centre

  lead OTHER

Principal Investigators

• Anne R Katahoire, PhD · Child Health and Development Centre, School of Medicine, Makerere University College of Health Sciences

• Wilson W Muhwezi, PhD · Makerere University College of Health Sciences School of Medicine, Department of Psychiatry

• Cecily Banura, PhD · Child Health and Development Centre, School of Medicine, Makerere University College of Health Sciences

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

PREVENTION

Masking

NONE

Model

PARALLEL

Eligibility

Min Age

12 Years

Max Age

14 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

No

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2010-01-31

Primary Completion

2012-09-30

Completion

2014-03-31

Countries

• Uganda

Study Locations