Selection of interviewees

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feedback regarding a client‘s risk and experience of health-related problems while avoiding labels, confrontation and specific interviewer-generated goals for client behaviour change (Fader 2010). Therefore, this result has proved further that MI is effective in fostering HIV risk-protective behaviours among adolescents.

Also, the result further lends credence to the findings of Zimmerman, Bandura and Mantinez -pons (1992) that self-efficacy mediates self-regulated behaviour among individuals. Bandura (1992) also explained that a sense of personal efficacy is related to better health, higher achievement and more social integration if the individuals believe they can take actions to solve their problems. In doing this, a sense of value is developed and this creates inner attitudes which bring about the urge to acquire knowledge through information gathering and consequently the desire to effect a lasting change.

Hypothesis Two

Hypothesis two states that there is no significant main effect of adolescent age on the HIV risk-protective behaviour of participants. The result revealed that early and late adolescents were not significantly different in their HIV risk-protective behaviour.

Therefore, the hypothesis was accepted. The period of adolescence is a time when young people are physically capable of reproducing and cognitively aware enough to think about their sexuality. Two factors could be responsible for this: how they are educated regarding sex or sex education and how they are exposed to sexuality, will establish if they do or do not develop a healthy sexual identity. Also, at this stage, adolescents are in search of knowledge on sexuality, if adults do not provide accurate information; they (adolescents) are forced to rely on their peers or other potentially inaccurate sources. (Huebner,2009).This finding confirms previous studies of Offor, Ogbeide and Unugbe (1998) who discovered in a study to determine the prevalence of HIV in Benin, Nigeria that adolescents aged between 13 and 15 years had at one time or the other been treated for sexually transmitted diseases and that of Akinboye (2004) who discovered that among Brazilian, Hungarian, Kenyan and Nigerian adolescents, boys aged between 15 and 19 had engaged in sexual activity before the age of 15.On the other hand, indicators of youth vulnerability and responses to HIV and AIDS in Nigeria from the National HIV/AIDS and Reproductive Health Survey Report(2013) show that HIV prevalence rate among 15-19 years old adolescents between 2008 and 2012 was 2.1% while 1.9% was recorded for those between 20-24 and this corroborates

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the United States‘ Centre for disease control (2012) assertion that many young people engage in sexual risk behavior that can result in unintended health outcomes.

Hypothesis Three

Hypothesis three states that there is no significant main effect of socio-economic status on the HIV risk-protective behaviour of the participants. This hypothesis was not accepted because it was discovered that there was significant main effect of socio-economic status on the HIV risk-protective behaviours of participants.

This finding has invariably shown that the socio-economic status of adolescents impacted on their HIV risk-protective behaviours. This finding corroborates earlier studies of Abu and Akerele (2006) which found out that among in-school adolescents in Ibadan, Nigeria, socio-economic status of parents based on indices such as parents‘

income, religion, type of housing, nature of job, social values and the environment affect the sexual behaviour of adolescents either positively or negatively. If teens feel parental support, feel a connection to their parents, and are aptly supervised by them, they are less likely to have sexual intercourse and if parents model sexual risk-taking behaviour, such as early child bearing or permissive attitude towards pre-marital sex, adolescent from such environment could engage in early sexual intercourse.

Also, Sjoberg ( 2000) contended that socio-economic factors within the society have also been identified as having an important bearing on facilitating certain types of protective or risk-related behaviours among adolescents, they may affect the opportunity for, timing of and patterns of behaviours, such as sexual, social, health seeking, or recreational behaviours that can impact on the risk of HIV infection

Hypothesis Four

The fourth hypothesis which states that there is no significant interaction effect of treatments by socio-economic status on the HIV risk-protective behaviour of the participants. This hypothesis was not accepted as the result shows that the high economic status participants performed significantly better than the low socio-economic status participants in the treatment groups. The plausible reason for this is that in most Nigerian families, issues relating to sex are not freely discussed with adolescents especially in low socio-economic background families while parents in the high socio-economic background families encourage their wards to discuss intimate sexual relationship through the use of appropriate parent-child communication skills

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and this provides opportunity for adequate guidance on sexual issues. This finding lends further credence to earlier studies by Taris and Senicin (1997); Ranmirez-Vallas Zimmerman and Newcomb (1998) and Upchurch et al, (1999) which showed that high socio-economic status of parents most often has been found to be associated with lower risk of having had intercourse and later sexual debut of adolescents. Findings by Miller, Benson and Galbraith (2001) showed that Parents‘ style of communication is related to adolescent sexual behavoiur; also, open, positive and frequent communication about sex was found to be related to adolescents being abstinent, delaying their first sexual intercourse, as well as having fewer partners.

In the same vein, this finding corroborates Collier‘s (1997) earlier conclusion that adolescents appear to thrive developmentally when their family setting is one of warm relationship, one in which adults and children are permitted to express their view points and assert their individuality; and one in which parents expect mature behaviour from teenagers, establish and enforce reasonable roles and; on the contrary, if the relationship is weak and autocratic, the adolescents will find a way to run away and find refuge and solace in what ever makes them happier. Thus if a close and cordial relationship can be established between the parents and the adolescent, it will foster acceptable training and acceptability of family norms and values in relation to sexual behaviours and other devised values and norms of the family.

This finding is however different from Uwakwe‘s (1998) finding that adolescents from high socio-economic background showed a higher tendency towards sexual risk-taking behaviours than those from low socio-economic orientation.

Hypothesis Five

Hypothesis five states that there is no significant interaction effect of treatment and adolescents‘ age on the HIV risk protective behaviour of the participants. The multiple classification analysis revealed that the interaction effects of treatment were more significant on the early adolescents than late adolescents; therefore, the hypothesis was not accepted. The plausible reason for this may be that at early adolescence, behavioural experimentation is at play and early adolescents may not be as adventurous as their late adolescent counterparts in terms of HIV risk-taking behaviours. This finding shows that the treatment package impacted more on the early adolescents than late adolescents. This is in agreement with Hargreaves, (2002) who

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found that adolescents act based on their knowledge of a particular problem, and of a potential behavioural ―solution‖ to the identified problem. Behavioural intention is seen as a product of the adolescent‘s attitude towards the behaviour, perceived subjective norms, and self-efficacy in performing a particular behaviour. In the presence of these predicators of sexual behaviour, behavioural intention is highly predictive of actual behaviour if the adolescent has the necessary skills to perform the behaviour and in the absence of any environmental constraints. This finding corroborates Bakare‘s (2002) earlier finding that the average age for first coital experience among adolescents in southwestern Nigeria was 16.5 years among males.

Hypothesis Six

Hypothesis six states that there is no significant interaction effect of adolescents‘ age and socio-economic status of participants HIV risk-protective behaviour. The result shows that the interaction effects of age and socio-economic status of participants was significant, hence, the hypothesis was not accepted. This shows that among the study participants, HIV risk-protective behaviour pattern differs based on their age and socio-economic status. The plausible reason for this may be that age or stage of development and socio-economic background influence comprehension and interpretation of sexual risk-taking behaviours by adolescents. This finding is supported by Silverman-Watkins and Sprafkin (1983) who reported that 12-year-old adolescents were less likely to understand suggestive material that can promote promiscuity than 14 and 16 year adolescents.

On the other hand, the above finding lends credence to Owuamanam (1997) who posited that parents from low socio-economic background use more physical punishment while parents from high socio-economic background use reasoning discipline more frequently which may influence the adolescent‘s decision on sexual relationship. Also, Aremu (2001) asserted that those who come from the low strata of socio-economic conditions where accommodation is a single room; where parents cannot fulfil the legitimate needs of their children; where the children do not feel secured and emotionally satisfied tend to be sexually permissive. In the same vein, Whitbeck, Conger and Kao (1999) reported a mixed outcome by age, with parental monitoring of younger adolescents leading to decreased sexual activity and among older adolescents leading to increased sexual activity.

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Hypothesis seven states that there is no significant interaction effect of treatment, adolescent age and socio-economic status on the participants HIV risk-protective behaviour. The result shows that the three way interaction effect of treatment, socio-economic status and adolescent age on the participants‘ HIV risk-protective behaviour was not significant; therefore, the hypothesis was accepted. Most adolescent sexual behaviours carry with them some element of risk; the critical question appears not to be adolescents‘ attitudes toward sex, but rather their attitudes toward protecting themselves from sexual risk. A motivated adolescent with an optimistic view of the future may choose to remain abstinent, or may choose to become sexually active, but only in a very careful and relatively protected manner. Although abstinence-only advocates would rightly point out that the abstinent adolescent faces the fewest risks, it is unarguable that both the abstinent and the highly responsible and motivated sexually active adolescents face dramatically lower levels of risk than do unmotivated risk-taking adolescents. This latter group is unlikely to take pleas for abstinence or for sexual-responsibility seriously, unless they are presented in a way that provides a vision of a future role for them that they will want to safeguard. Therefore, appropriate psychotherapeutic interventions like this study can cause behavioural change. This is in agreement with the views of Diclemente and Peterson (1994) and Maruschak (2005) that HIV among high-risk individuals can be prevented through appropriate behavioural changes and opportunities to reach and engage them in HIV prevention, treatment and care.