‘Parents are gudlists!’ Experiences of puberty and parent-child sexual communication in rural KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa

Abstract

This paper explores young people’s experiences of puberty and their perspectives on parent-child sexual communication in rural northern KwaZulu-Natal. In-depth individual interviews, focus group discussions, and participatory visual research methodology were employed with 18 and 19-year-old young women (n = 30) and young men (n = 16) attending three primary health care facilities and a local high school in Jozini municipality. The findings suggest a complex interplay between unequal gender and socio-cultural norms that results in divergent puberty experiences and ambiguous and inconsistent patterns of parent-child sexual communication. Young people referred to their parents as gudlists, a local colloquialism for someone who is evasive, vague, ambiguous and indirect. Lack of open parent-child sexual communication hinders discussion of healthy sexuality, neglecting the sexual and reproductive health education and needs of young people. Reflective of their desire for change, young women in particular contest current parenting norms and suggest returning to cultural practices linked to traditional forms of courtship and sexual communication among young Zulu people.

Keywords:

• puberty
• parent-child sexual communication
• sexual and reproductive health
• socio-cultural context

Acknowledgements

We thank the participants who shared their views during this project and our research assistants, Lloyd Mpanza and Zama Khanyile, for their incredible contribution during data-generation.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 The first author, aided by isiZulu-speaking male and female research assistants, was responsible for data generation, analysis, interactions with participants, and preparation of the manuscript. Co-authors were involved in the design of the study, data analysis and editing of the manuscript.

2 Eggplant.

Additional information

Funding

We thank the Discovery Foundation and University of KwaZulu-Natal Capacity Development Programme for financial support.