Fred Ouma
21 October 2007
Kampala — DESPITE years of intense media coverage and community discussions about HIV in Uganda, the results show that the battle against the scourge is far from over.
A survey, The Straight Talk Campaign in Uganda: Impact of Mass Media Initiative, conducted by the Population Council, found a significant correlation between safer behaviours in young people and exposure to Straight Talk Foundation (STF) media products.
But some of the findings are not positive and health officials fear that complacency could easily erase the country's success story in the fight against HIV/AIDS.
Researchers interviewed over 2,100 adolescents aged 10 to 19 years in the districts of Apac, Arua, Ntungamo, Soroti, Kamuli and Kisoro.
Key findings
According to the survey, one in five adolescents believe that AIDS can be cured and that a girl cannot become pregnant the first time she has sex.
In addition, less than half understand that a girl can get pregnant if she has sex standing up and four in 10 youth do not believe condoms are effective against sexually transmitted infections even when used correctly.
The results also show that both male and female adolescents exposed to three STF products are three times more likely to hold positive values toward condoms, compared to those not exposed.
However, half the adolescents exposed to three STF materials believe condom use indicates mistrust of a partner, while over 70% believe girls who carry condoms are 'loose'.
On gender attitudes, adolescents were intolerant of school girl pregnancies: nearly three quarters of both boys and girls agreed that girls who get pregnant should be expelled from school.
They were just as intolerant of boys who make the girls pregnant. A total of 79% of girls and 69% of boys recommended that such boys should also be expelled.
On who should be sent to school first if money is scarce and the family cannot educate all the children, 41% of males felt boys should be sent first, compared to 31% of females.
Forty-six percent of the boys also said men should have the final say about having sex, compared with 35% of girls. Equal proportions of boys and girls (57%) said women should tolerate abuse in order to keep the family together.
Like in the recent Uganda Demographic and Health Survey, 51% of girls and 48% of boys said there are times when a woman deserves to be beaten.
When they were assessed on their self-assuredness and social well-being, majority of the adolescents (90%) said they were happy with themselves. In addition, three quarters of the boys and two-thirds of the girls felt they were as skilled and "can do things as well as most people my age".
But further analysis demonstrates that many lack self-confidence. For instance, 36% of girls and 25% of boys did not believe they were as important as other family members.
One in four girls and one in eight boys wished they were born the opposite sex. Nearly 40% of adolescents felt their friends were better than them and a third doubted they would have a bright future.
The STF encourages parent-child communication.
Nearly half the respondents reported having had some conversation with a parent or guardian about sexuality, growing up and relationships, with girls (54%) more likely to report this than boys (42%).
For the young people who did not discuss with their parents, the reasons in their order of hierarchy were embarrassment, fear of parents' reaction, lack of interest, do not know why, parents not seen often, parents not interested and being too young.
The results show that exposure to STF products lowered males' likelihood of ever having sex, but the pattern among females is not statistically significant.
According to Susan Adamchak, one of the researchers, this could be because females are generally conservative and the involuntary nature of female sexual behaviour - 19% of sexually active girls said their first sexual encounter was forced - and may not report.
This also means that STF activities are contributing positively to significant proportions of males who are not exposed to heterosexual transmission of HIV, said Adamchak while presenting the findings at Kabira Country Club in Kampala recently.
Once sexually experienced, males exposed to all SFT's materials are three times as likely to report practicing secondary virginity compared to their unexposed counterparts.
Males were also 20 times likely to consider their present sexual relationships serious, with marital aspirations. Conversely, the pattern for females remain unclear basically because they generally regard relationships serious, hence exposure may not alter their anticipation.
Conclusion
Participants agreed that the STF has been an important influence on reproductive health knowledge, attitudes and behaviour of Ugandan adolescents exposed to its activities.
For example, nearly 60% of exposed adolescents reported abstinence as the main message they learned from STF.
They also noted that parent-child communication was important as most girls preferred mothers to fathers as their most important source of information on sexual and reproductive health. Majority of boys were able to identify STF materials.
The STF director, Cathy Watson, concluded: "Achieving safer behaviour in girls may hinge upon working with their mothers, regarded as a prime source. So are local languages on radio shows, not only favoured by most male adolescents, but important for mothers who are less literate than men."
The way forward
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