Associations of Parents-Adolescent Relationship with Adolescent Sexual Risk Behaviors: A Global Analysis Based on 156,649 School-Going Adolescents from 50 Countries

Md Shajedur Rahman Shawon; Nazifa Nawal Huda; Rashawan Raziur Rouf; Fariha Binte Hossain; Gulam Muhammed Al Kibria

doi:10.1080/19317611.2023.2283440

Associations of Parents-Adolescent Relationship with Adolescent Sexual Risk Behaviors: A Global Analysis Based on 156,649 School-Going Adolescents from 50 Countries

Int J Sex Health. 2023 Nov 20;36(1):15-31. doi: 10.1080/19317611.2023.2283440. eCollection 2024.

Authors

Md Shajedur Rahman Shawon¹, Nazifa Nawal Huda², Rashawan Raziur Rouf³, Fariha Binte Hossain⁴, Gulam Muhammed Al Kibria⁵

Affiliations

¹ Centre for Big Data Research in Health, UNSW Sydney, Sydney, Australia.
² Department of Global Public Health, Karolinska Institute, Stockholm, Sweden.
³ Shaheed Suhrawardy Medical College, Dhaka, Bangladesh.
⁴ School of Population Health, UNSW Sydney, Sydney, Australia.
⁵ Department of International Health, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore, MD, USA.

Abstract

Our study, examining the Global School-Based Student Health Survey data from 50 countries across four WHO regions, found boys have higher sexual exposure (33.5 vs 17.7%) and risk behaviors - early sexual initiation (55.0 vs. 40.1%), multiple partners (45.2 vs. 26.2%), and condom nonuse (29.2 vs. 26.8%) - than girls. We found that adolescents with parents who understood their problems, monitored academic and leisure-time activities, and respected privacy were less likely to be engaged in sexual activities and risk behaviors. This study highlights the importance of parental involvement and advocates for gender-specific, family-focused interventions to mitigate adolescent sexual risks.

Keywords: Adolescent sexual health; early sexual initiation; parental monitoring; parents’ behavior; sexual exposure; sexual risk behaviors.

Grants and funding

The author(s) reported there is no funding associated with the work featured in this article.