Sexuality communication in African families: the dynamics of openness and closedness
| dc.contributor.advisor | Breshears, Diana | en_ZA |
| dc.contributor.author | Shu, Victorine Mbong | en_ZA |
| dc.date.accessioned | 2025-01-03T12:27:13Z | |
| dc.date.available | 2025-01-03T12:27:13Z | |
| dc.date.issued | 2024 | en_ZA |
| dc.description | Thesis (Ph.D.(Communication Science)--University of the Free State, 2024 | en_ZA |
| dc.description.abstract | Family conversations on sex and sexuality are often one of the most challenging conversations for parents and adolescents although there is proof that effective talks can reduce adolescents’ sexual risk (Grossman, Jenkins & Richer, 2018; Rogers, 2017; Rogers, Ha, Stormshak & Dishion, 2015; Braithwaite, Schrodt & Carr, 2014). Research has presented adolescents as the most risk-taking population (United Nations (UN), 2016; United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF), 2011) and parents are aware of this. Parents’ attitudes towards sex and sexuality shape adolescents’ perception (UNICEF, 2019; Grossman et al., 2018) and their subsequent communication on sex and sexuality. Yet, many parents continue to evade sex-related communications with adolescents for many reasons including that they are waiting for adolescents to come of age (Blaisse, 2010). Similarly, research presents that adolescents do not want to engage in sex and sexuality talks with their parents either (Tilton-Weaver, Kerr, Pakalniskeine, Tokic, Salihovic & Stattin, 2010). It is not only because their parents have not talked to them. Adolescents avoid sex talks because they do not trust the quality of knowledge from their parents. Consequently, they would rather talk to their siblings and peers or learn from school. Haydon, Hill, Ward and Eggett (2023) shed more light on this by stating that they thrive to be different. As such, not revealing their private information means preserving what makes them unique. This study fills the gap on how African family members in South Africa, with adolescents, communicate sex and sexuality with each other including how they decide on what to say and what not to say. Guided by the Communication Privacy Management theory (CPM), this qualitative design-based study explores how family members negotiate rule management, how they coordinate boundaries, how they handle privacy violations, and advice on how they should actually communicate these. This thesis is the result of 40 in-depth interviews with participants from African families residing within the borders of South Africa. 20 parents of adolescents share their experiences as adolescents, but mostly while parenting adolescents, and 20 young adults spoke in retrospect about their adolescence. The main purpose of this study was to understand the role which sex and sexuality communication play in the lives of adolescents in African families in South Africa, and what influences the openness or closedness of their communication. In the process of exploring these topics, responses were coded and presented to answer four research questions that guide this study. Topics discussed include the following: rules development, boundary coordination, boundaries turbulence, and advice to parents and adolescents. Findings indicate that due to existing rules that govern sex and sexuality communication, family members encounter known and unknown boundaries because they see sex and sexuality communication as intruding. At the same time, disclosure rules facilitate how information ownership and secrets are managed alongside encounters of privacy violations. I interpret the findings, provide the implications of the findings, present the study’s limitations, and future directions. | en_ZA |
| dc.identifier.uri | http://hdl.handle.net/11660/12909 | |
| dc.language.iso | en | |
| dc.publisher | University of the Free State | en_ZA |
| dc.rights.holder | University of the Free State | en_ZA |
| dc.subject | Adolescents | en_ZA |
| dc.subject | Adolescents’ socialisation | en_ZA |
| dc.subject | Adolescents’ sexual behaviours | en_ZA |
| dc.subject | Family communication | en_ZA |
| dc.subject | African families | en_ZA |
| dc.subject | Sexual identity | en_ZA |
| dc.subject | Family sex and sexuality | en_ZA |
| dc.subject | Sex and sexuality | en_ZA |
| dc.subject | Communication privacy management | en_ZA |
| dc.title | Sexuality communication in African families: the dynamics of openness and closedness | en_ZA |
| dc.type | Thesis |