The Moderating Effect of Parenting Style in the Association between Parent-Adolescent Sexual Risk Communication and Sexual Risk Behaviour among High School Youth in Swaziland

Background: Despite efforts by various organizations to control the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) spread in some parts of sub-Saharan Africa, Swaziland included, incidence and prevalence rates remain high; indicating a need for studies that explore social processes which organizations and programmes might have not yet identified or put major focus on, which could otherwise be useful in the prevention of adolescent sexual risk behaviours.
Purpose: Based on the contextual model of parenting style, this study aimed to examine whether the relationship between parent-adolescent sexual risk communication (PASRC) and adolescent sexual risk behaviour was moderated by parenting style. Gender differences by sexual risk behaviour-taking were also of interest in this study.
Methods: A cross-sectional and descriptive study design, through self-reported questionnaires was employed, and data were collected from 462 youth (211 boys and 251 girls), aged 15-24 years, in senior grades of three public high schools (2 rural and 1 urban) at a central region in Swaziland. Analyses included frequencies, chi-square tests, and hierarchical binary and multinomial logistic regression analyses to test moderating effects of parenting styles in the studied relationships. Respondents who had ever had sex were classified into no risk (reference) group, one risk and multiple risk groups.
Results: The mean age of participants was 18.9 (SD = 1.85) years, a majority being female (54.3%; n = 251). About 35.9% of the participants had ever had sex. Parenting style (authoritativeness) did not moderate the relationship between PASRC and sexual risk behaviour, nor the one between PASRC and sexual initiation, adjusting for adolescent age, gender, family structure, and peer sexual activity in both models. Additionally, neither PASRC nor parents’ authoritativeness predicted whether adolescents would initiate sexual intercourse or not, or, whether they would be classified as single risk-takers or multiple risk-takers, compared to no risk, while holding other variables constant in the models. Boys were more likely to be sexually active (to have ever had sex), and to have done so with more than two people in their lifetime, than girls.
Conclusion and Recommendations: Contrary to the propositions of the contextual model of parenting style, in this study, parenting styles (authoritativeness) did not moderate the studied relationship, indicating possible limitations in the applicability of the contextual model of parenting style in an African sample. The study findings have implications for researchers, administrators and health educators working with adolescents.