Abstract:
A good understanding of human growth and development helps in the smooth
transition of an individual from one stage to another. One of such stages is adolescence, which
presents a lot of challenges as well as opportunities. There are differences in the extent to which
families encourage conversation, the extent to which they demand conformity to family values
as well as the extent to which families pass down strongly held family values from one generation
to another, regarding changes that occur during adolescence. The study examines Parent-Child
Communication Patterns between parents and adolescents in coastal communities in Ghana.
Also, the study explored the effects of parent-child communication related to sexual and
reproductive health in improving adolescent sexual reproductive health practices in Ghana. Data
was collected from 300 adolescents in selected coastal communities within the Cape Coast
Metropolis in Ghana. We found that many parents in the coastal communities within the Cape
Coast Metropolis are unable to transmit SRH information to their children. The findings also
revealed that level of formal education influenced parents’ ability to transmit SRH information
to adolescents and exposes poor parent-adolescent relationship regarding SRH information in
the communities studied. Aside from contributing to literature and informing policy directions
on family communication patterns regarding adolescent SRH, the study brings more insight on
how parents and their adolescents along coastal communities in Cape Coast, Ghana
communicate SRH issues. Implications for counselling are outlined.
