Communication Between Adolescents and Their Parents on HIV/AIDS Related Topics

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 favour it, from both the parent's and the children's perspectives.

Methods: To successfully fulfil these objectives the entire population of families (120) with children in the 10 to 19 age group living in the area covered by the Community Health Centre attached to the Polyclinic, Cerro Municipality, Havana were surveyed. 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 those 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.

Conclusions: There exists a high level of trust among adolescents and their parents in relation to HIV/AIDS topics. It was identified as element that favours communication and the lack of preparation and faulty information of the parents as the elements that hinder communication.