Most studies of the association between family structure and risky
sexual behaviour among adolescents and young adults have employed a risk
perspective which assumes that, compared with other types, two-parent
families are protective. Drawing from a positive-oriented approach in this
study, it is hypothesized that within each family type some influential factors
may mitigate such anticipated deleterious effects of non-intact families and
decrease sexual risk-taking. The paper examines specifically the effects of risk
and protective factors with an emphasis on family processes associated with
resilience, using data from a pooled sample of 1025 females and males aged
12–24 years from Bandjoun (West Cameroon). Findings show that the quality
of parent/guardian–youth relationships significantly decreases the odds of
risky sexual behaviour by 36%, 65% and 50% in neither-, one- and two-parent
families, respectively. For two-parent families only, parental control acts as a
significant protective factor; it decreased by 41% the odds of risky sexual
behaviour. Programmatically, protective family factors such as parent/
guardian–youth interactions need to be promoted to improve the efficiency of
reproductive health and HIV interventions in sub-Saharan Africa.