Parental Communication And Adolescence Attitude Towards Premarital Sexual Behavior:A Study In Eritrea

The objective of this study is to investigate how adolescents’ attitude towards premarital sex and parent-adolescent communication about sex affects premarital sexual behavior. The study further analyzed the mediating effect of adolescents’ attitude toward premarital sex on the relationship between parent-adolescent communication regarding premarital sex and adolescents’ premarital sexual behavior. It is conducted in Warsay Yikealo Secondary School in Eritrea with292grade12students from all over the country. Male to female ratio is1to1, and the average age of the students is18years. A correlational research method and simple and multiple regression analyses were also employed for the investigation. The research is conducted to address the following issues/problems:degree of parent-adolescent communication on openness and extent of problem regarding issues related to sex; the relationship between parent-adolescent communication about and adolescents’ attitude toward premarital sexual behavior; the relationship between parent-adolescent communication and adolescents’ premarital sexual behavior; and the relationship between adolescents’ attitude and behavior toward premarital sex. Finally, the mediating effect of attitude toward premarital sex on the relationship between parent-adolescent communication about premarital sex and adolescents’ premarital sexual behavior is investigated. Three standardized measurement scales-Premarital Sexual Attitude Scale (PSAS), Sexual Behavior Inventory (SBI), and Parent-Adolescent Communication Scale (PACS)-were used to measure the values of the three variables. The results of this study are significant in filling the gap in knowledge (absence of literature in Eritrea). Three hypotheses (the second hypothesis having three parts) were proposed and tested:1. Many of the adolescents engage in premarital sexual activities;2.1. Adolescents’ attitude toward premarital sex will be negatively predicted by the parent-adolescent communication on issues related to sex;2.2. There will be a significant correlation between adolescent-parent communication and adolescents’ attitude toward premarital sex;2.3. Adolescents’ attitude toward premarital sex positively predicts their premarital sexual behavior; and3. Many adolescents will report experiencing premarital sexual activity including sexual intercourse. All these hypotheses were confirmed. On testing the first hypothesis it is found that79.8%of the adolescents engage in premarital sexual activities. With regard to hypothesis2.1it is found that communication negatively and significantly predicts attitude, F(2,289)=18.51, p<.05. With regard to hypothesis2.2it is found that with the openness and extent of problem of the communication scale insignificant positive (r=.083(N=292), p>.025) and significant positive (r=.197(N=292), p<.025) correlations with attitude respectively exist. With hypothesis2.3it was again found that attitude positively and significantly predicts behavior, F(2,292)=34.62, p<.05. In testing the last hypothesis it is found that83.6%of the respondents reported experiencing sexual activities,61.6%of which have experienced sexual intercourse. Toward the end of the report, discussion of the above and other findings and some recommendations are presented.