Parents Perceptions and Practices As Regards Adolescents Adolescents Sex Education in the Home Environment in the City of Come, Benin in 2015

Introduction: Adolescence is a period of life during which physiological and anatomical changes which influence the individual’s personality occur. Objective: To study parents’ perceptions and practices as regards adolescents’ sex education in the home environment in 2015. Methodology: It was an analytical and descriptive cross-sectional study with a prospective data collection from 6 to 13 October 2015 from households of the city of Comé in Benin. It was a random sampling in accordance with the two-stage cluster sampling technique. Results: In total, 576 fathers or mothers were involved in the survey. The average age of parents was 44 years ±13 years old with extremes of 23 and 90 years. On the whole, for 90.8% of the surveyed parents, adolescents’ sex education was necessary, and this opinion was more especially expressed by christian parents. Furthermore, 55.0% of the surveyed parents agreed that it was their duty to provide their children with sex education. The female sex (0.021), university education (0.038), permissive parenting style (0.09), christian religion (0.026), the very practicing (0.022) took part in the adolescents’ sex education. Among the subjects covered, women mostly tend to discuss themes related to pregnancy-contraception-the adolescent’s desire (p=0.005), personal experiences (p<0.001) with adolescents rather than men. Conclusion: Parents’ involvement remains a necessity in adolescents’ sex education