'Lets' talk about sex': The nature and content of parent-child communication on HIV/AIDS in Nigeria

The main objective of the paper is to assess the nature and content of parent-child communication in Nigeria. The study triangulates findings from both a national representative survey with 10,090 men and women selected from a multi-stage probability random design and 26 focus group discussions held in 12 different Nigerian cities. There was limited parent-child communication on sexuality and HIV. Rather, the main issues discussed with parents were school matters and general lifestyle issues. Fear of unfavourable reactions from parents were the reasons given by youth why they did not speak to parents. Youths perceived that parents felt the school teachers would discuss about sexuality and condoms as parents were embarrassed to do so. Findings suggest that youth would like to get advice from their parents on sexuality issues, but worry about societal taboos.