Mother’s perceptions and concerns over sharing sexual and reproductive health information with their adolescent daughters- A qualitative study among mothers of adolescent girls aged 14–19 years in the developing world, Sri Lanka

INTRODUCTION: Studies across the world have shown that parent-adolescent SRH communication can prevent unhealthy sexual and reproductive health (SRH) practices among adolescents and promote their sexual and reproductive health. Parents have the ability to provide individualized sex education to suit the needs of their children, their families, and societal values. The fact that children have more opportunities in the family, makes parent-based sexuality education of children a better approach to Sri Lankan context. OBJECTIVE: To explore mother’s perceptions and concerns over sharing SRH information with their daughters among Sinhalese mothers of adolescent girls aged 14–19 years in Sri Lanka. METHODOLOGY: Six Focus group discussions (FGD) were carried out among mothers of adolescent girls aged 14–19 years. Each focus group discussion included 10–12 participants who were recruited using the purposive sampling method. A focus group discussion guide developed after an extensive literature search and expert opinion was used to retrieve information from mothers. Data management and analysis mainly followed an inductive approach to thematic analysis principles. The findings were presented in narrative form using respondents’ quotes in their own words and were developed into codes and themes. RESULTS: The mean age of the participants was 43.5 years while 62.4% (n = 40) were educated above the Ordinary level. Analysis of data identified eight main themes from the FGDs. Many mothers thought that sexual and reproductive information is important to adolescent girls. They tried to keep their girl adolescents informed about Adolescent sexual and reproductive health (ASRH) issues. They preferred abstinence-only education over abstinence-plus education. Lack of skills and lack of knowledge on adolescent SRH issues was a major challenge identified by the mothers to communicate SRH matters with their children. CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS: Although mothers perceived their role as primary sex educators to their children, they were not confident about their knowledge and skills in discussing SRH matters with children. Implementation of interventions to improve mothers’ attitudes and skills in communicating SRH matters with children is recommended. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1186/s12905-023-02369-1.