Mothers’ Attitudes and Perceptions of their roles in Sex Education of their Pre-adolescent Daughters: A Case of Gitundu and Kairuthi Areas of Othaya Division, Nyeri District

The purpose of this study was to establish the mothers’ attitudes and perceptions of their own role in the sex education of their pre-adolescent daughters. The study also tried to find out the pre-adolescent girls’ perception of their mothers as sex educators. The study was conducted in Gitundu and Kairuthi sublocations of Iriaini location, Othaya Division, Nyeri District. The researcher used mothers with pre-adolescent daughters aged between 11-15 years in primary schools. Simple random sampling was done to get the sample area and respondents. The respondents were sampled from a school setting because it was easy for the researcher to identify mothers with pre-adolescent daughters from a school setting. Respondents included pre-adolescent girls aged 11-15 years in public primary schools and their mothers. Public schools were used because they provided respondents with different background information especially the socioeconomic status of mothers. Pre-adolescent girls aged between 11-15 years were used because of their developmental stage, which, according to developmental theorists, is the stage at which rapid body growth and changes occur. They are also faced with psychological, social and cognitive changes that impact on their growth and experiences differently. The researcher used descriptive research with a cross-sectional design. Descriptive research was used because it is helpful in reporting the way things are. In this study, the researcher was not able to manipulate variables such as mothers’ attitudes and perceptions and the presence or absence of sex education. Questionnaires and focus group discussions were used to collect both quantitative and qualitative data. Two questionnaires were used: one for mothers, which was the main tool for the study and one for the daughters to supplement the mothers’ questionnaire. Focus group discussion guide was also developed, which gave supplementary information to the mothers’ questionnaire. The researcher personally administered the interview to the respondents. This gave the researcher an opportunity to meet all the respondents and to address any arising issues that may have interfered with the respondents’ way of responding to the questions. The main findings of the study showed that mothers had negative attitudes and perceptions towards their own role in providing sex education, pre-adolescent girls received no sex education from their mothers and that pre-adolescent girls had negative perceptions of their mothers as sex educators. The main conclusions from the study indicated that there is need to provide sex education to pre-adolescent girls, mothers to be well equipped and prepared to provide sex education to their pre-adolescent daughters and that communication between mothers and their pre-adolescent daughters needed to be improved.