Mother-Daughter Communication on Intimate Relationships: Voices from a Township in Bloemfontein, South Africa

Ntombizonke A. Gumede; Amanda M. Young-Hauser; Jan K. Coetzee

doi:10.18778/1733-8077.13.1.13

Authors

Ntombizonke A. Gumede University of the Free State, South Africa
Amanda M. Young-Hauser University of the Free State, South Africa
Jan K. Coetzee University of the Free State, South Africa

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.18778/1733-8077.13.1.13

Keywords:

Communication, Intimate Relationships, Parents, Sex Education, South Africa

Abstract

Sex education and conversations about intimate relationships are generally regarded to be important and can contribute to young women’s positive or negative reproductive health development and general well-being. The findings contained in this article suggest that in a resource poor South African township, mothers and their daughters struggle to initiate and conduct meaningful discussions about sex. These discussions are often framed in terms of possible negative consequences of intimate relationships, such as unplanned pregnancy, dropping out of school, or possible Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) infection. However, these discussions are clearly not altogether effective as several young research participants had an unplanned baby. Emotional aspects that are normally associated with intimate relationships are missing from the mother-daughter conversations.

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Author Biographies

Ntombizonke A. Gumede, University of the Free State, South Africa

Ntombizonke A. Gumede obtained her Master’s degree in the program The Narrative Study of Lives, Department of Sociology, University of the Free State, Bloemfontein, South Africa.

Amanda M. Young-Hauser, University of the Free State, South Africa

Amanda M. Young-Hauser is a Research Fellow in the program The Narrative Study of Lives at the University of the Free State in Bloemfontein, South Africa. She did her PhD at the University of Waikato, Hamilton, New Zealand.

Jan K. Coetzee, University of the Free State, South Africa

Jan K. Coetzee is a Senior Professor of Sociology and Director of the program The Narrative Study of Lives in the Department of Sociology at the University of the Free State, Bloemfontein, South Africa. He specializes in qualitative sociology and serves on several international advisory boards.

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