Parenting skill is one of the crucial needs that parents must have in caring\nadolescents� sexual health risk behavior. Present study aims to determine predictors\nof parenting skills in preventing adolescents� sexual health risk behavior.\nA cross sectional study was conducted among adolescents� parents who\nattended government health clinics in a semi-urban district, West Malaysia.\nData were collected by systematic random sampling using validated questionnaire\nfrom eight government health clinics based on routine daily out-patient\nservices. There were 386 respondents participated with 98.9% of response\nrate. Parental skill is categorized as appropriate or inappropriate based\non Trans-Theoretical Model (TTM) staging. Eighteen independent variables\nwere used: parental socioeconomic status, adolescent characteristic, parenting\nstyle, parent-adolescent communication, parental stress, perception on adolescent\nsexual risk, comfortable in discussing sexual issues, knowledge in sexual\nreproductive health (SRH) and knowledge in HIV/AIDS. Assessment of\nparenting skills using the TTM stage showed 139 respondents (36%) had inappropriate\nparenting skills, in which they were in pre contemplation, contemplation\nor preparedness stages, while 247 respondents (64%) showed appropriate\nparenting skills when they were in action and maintenance stages of\nTTM. Older parent, late adolescent, low parental education level, extended\nfamily living arrangement, comfortable in discussing sexual issues, good parent-\nadolescent communication and higher knowledge in HIV/AIDS were found\nsignificant in bivariate analysis. Multivariate logistic regression analysis identified\nolder parent (AOR = 1.927, 95% CI = 1.889 - 1.966, p < 0.001), lower\nparental education (AOR = 2.394, 95% CI = 1.348 - 4.254, p = 0.003), comfortable\nin discussing sexual issues (AOR = 3.810, 95% CI = 1.622 - 8.948, p =\n0.002), good parent-adolescent communication (AOR = 4.741, 95% CI = 2.478\n- 9.071, p � 0.001) and having higher knowledge on HIV/AIDS (AOR = 2.804,\n95% CI = 1.528 - 5.147, p = 0.001) as significant predictors for appropriate\nparenting skills in preventing adolescent sexual health risk behavior. In conclusion,\nmore than one third of parents were still not ready in preventing ado-lescent sexual risk behavior. Targeting the young parents and those having\ndifficulty in communicating sexual issues with theirs adolescents should be\nemphasized in early intervention program for parents. Self-assessment using\nTTM stage questionnaire will help parents to identify their parenting skills in\npreventing adolescent sexual health risk behavior.
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