| Room 518 | Spanish Presentations Wednesday, July 13, 2005 Time: 2:30 PM-4:30 PM |
Communication between Adolescents and their Parents on HIV/AIDS Related Topics.
Chiong Ramos, Magali Berta*,1, 1 Sexual - Health Promotion Center, Cerro Municipality, Ciudad de la Habana, Vedado., Cuba
ABSTRACT- Introduction: In today's world HIV-AIDS has unfortunately become one of the most commonplace occurrences that parents and adolescents must face daily. For children to exhibit responsible behavior, parents must constitute the fundamental source of information. Objectives: To characterize communication between parents and adolescents on matters related to HIV/AIDS, as well as to identify the aspects that either hinder or favor it, from both the parent's and the children's perspectives. Methodology: To successfully fulfill these objectives the entire population of families with children in the 10 to 19 age group living in the area covered by the No. 28 Community Health Center attached to the "Heroes de Giron" Polyclinic, Cerro Municipality, Havana. The information gathering process was done using "The HIV/AIDS Adolescent-Parent Communication Scale","The Bipolar Quality of Communication Scale"
°, and Focus Groups Techniques, so as to assess the levels of trust, the quality of communicative functions and the contents of communication respectively. Two levels of analysis were made: statistical methods and focus group. Results: In more than 50% of those surveyed there exists a high level of HIV/AIDS trust among adolescents and their parents in related topics.This is in keeping with the fact that in the communication processes, the informative, emotional and regulatory functions exhibited optimal levels of quality.These two elements, together with the interest expressed by the adolescents and their parents to discuss HIV/AIDS related topics, were identified as elements that foster communication.The lack of preparation and faulty information on the above stated topics were identified as the elements that hinder communication. Recommendation: As a result of this analysis, the need to conduct workshops on all matters related to sexuality for both parents were recommended. Prior to these workshops, some research must be done to establish the actual cultural level of families and the educational role played by the Family Doctor.
Key words: Communication, Sexuality, Adolescents, HIV/AIDS, Parents