Science
Perceptions of Parents on How Religion Influences Adolescents' Sexual Behaviours in Two Ghanaian Communities: Implications for HIV and AIDS Prevention
Summary of Article
by Joseph Osafo, Emmanuel Asampong, Susan Langmagne & Clement Ahiedeke, 2014
The Ghanaian society is highly influenced by religion. Religion is therefore expected to play an important role in public health. The paper samples the views of two groups of caregivers (fathers and male caregivers, and mothers and female caregivers) of adolescents on the influence of religion on the adolescents. One group thought religion played a protective role by restraining adolescents from risky sexual behaviors yet disparaged existing traditional measures that regulated adolescents' sexual behavior. The other group however saw religion as a collaborative interface between existing social control measures, communal socialization and proscriptive morality with religious ethics