AEGiS-15IAC: Parental presence: Does it have any effect on HIV prevalence and risk behavior of young South Africans?

15th International AIDS Conference

Bangkok, Thailand - July 11-16, 2004

Parental presence: Does it have any effect on HIV prevalence and risk behavior of young South Africans?

Int Conf AIDS 2004 Jul 11-16; 15:(abstract no. TuOrC1154)

Hlongwa-Madikizela LF, Pettifor A, Rees H, Zantsi K
Reproductive Health research Unit, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa

BACKGROUND: Studies among youth in the United States have found that parental monitoring/presence can have a positive effect on reducing high risk behaviours yet there is little data showing the same in Africa. The aim of this paper was to determine whether the presence of parents has an effect on HIV and related risk behaviours among Black South African youth.

METHODS: The data is from a nationally representative household survey of young people age 15-24 in South African. Youth were administered a structured behavioural questionnaire and tests for HIV. The final sample was weighted to represent the distribution of young people age 15-24 years in South Africa. Bivariate and multivariate analyses were conducted in STATA using methods for survey data.

RESULTS: In total 11,904 youth were interviewed, of these 83% were Black Africans. In total, 90% of African youth reported having 'a parent/guardian who stays with you and takes care of youth at home'; 40% reported only their mother was taking care of them, 5% reported only their father and 25% reported that both mother and father were caring for them. In bivariate analyses, youth living with a parent were less likely to be infected with HIV (11% vs. 19%, p<.01) but the association disappeared after controlling confounders. Having both a mother and father at home was also protective against HIV infection (OR.70 95% CI.53-.92) after controlling for age, gender, education, geography type and having electricity at home. Youth who had a parent at home were significantly more likely to report having used a condom at last sex(OR 1.37 95% CI 1.0-1.9), less likely to ever have had sex (OR 0.19 95% CI 0.13-0.28), and girls were less likely to ever have been pregnant (OR 0.57 95% CI.41-.80), controlling for the above confounders. Conclusion Parental presence, particularly the presence of both parents in the home, does have a significant effect on HIV and related risk behaviours among Black South African youth

Keywords: AEGIS, Prevalence, Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome, HIV Seropositivity, Risk-Taking, HIV Infections, Adolescent Behavior, Condoms, Parents, Questionnaires, Interviews, United States, South Africa, Africa, Adolescent, Humans, Female, Pregnancy, epidemiology

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TuOrC1154