Structural characterisation

Risky Sexual Behaviours Prevalence Among in-school

Egbochuku & Adeyemi

sexual thoughts and emotions in an attempt to derive pleasure. Their yearning for belongingness coupled with their peer group pressure could result in some behavioural problems and challenges likely to prevent them from attaining set goals in academics and other aspects of their lives.

Alamrew, Bedimo, & Azage (2013) reported that most young people might start to have sexual engagement during the adolescence. More than half of females and nearly two-thirds of males have had sexual engagement by their 18th birthday. Females of ages 14, 15 and 16 are sexually active today, compared with young women of the same ages in the past, thus creating a substantial interval of risk for non-marital pregnancy (Fajonyomi & Carew, 2003).

Adolescence is a period when the growing children experience considerable acceleration in their growth sequence. These changes have impact on their interactions and behaviours towards their future endeavors. The stage is associated with physical, mental, social and psychological development in which adolescents usually notice both external and internal changes in their bodies such as secretion of hormones and physical maturity (Egbochuku, 2008). Adolescents may not be able to think deeply, they may consider the temporary benefits they may enjoy rather than the unintended consequences of their decisions, which may be unwanted pregnancy, untimely school dropout, sexually transmitted diseases and among others.

Adolescents' needs and interests may sometime predispose them to participate in risk taking behaviours, such as engaging in alcoholism or drug use, violent attitude, dangerous driving, smoking, having multiple sex partners, premarital sex, rape, early sex, among others. Adolescent tends to experiment with risky behaviours because of their curiosity and may want to have the feelings of what it tastes like, and what will happen (Monica 2010) .

The rate at which adolescents of today take risky behaviours is alarming and worrisome, owing to their exposure to various unhealthy and unwanted outlets including pornography, peer group influence, putting into practice of experiences they are exposed to and what they have seen from online media, the internet, and among others. Relevant government agencies had indicated that sexual risky behaviour is increasing among the adolescents. For example, the National Population Commission (2009) had raised an alarm concerning the ascendency of sexual interaction of various dimensions among the nation's youths and adolescents. Furthermore, the National Centre for

Disease Control and Prevention (NDCDP) had also observed a serious increase in sexually transmitted diseases (STD) among the youths and adolescents, which could affect their future endeavour if urgent attention is not paid (NCDCP, 2012).

Inappropriate thoughts could result in maladaptive behaviours, making an individual to engage in unhealthy living. These unhealthy behaviours could subject an individual to some disturbances in the psyche, possibly causing a loss of meaning and focus of their life goals (Egbochuku, 2012). Such situation could affect the human mind and sometimes stricken with stress, depression, and other psychological troubles that may need an objective cure from a counsellor.

Adolescents with such unhealthy behaviours could be assisted to change in order to meet the challenges of life, remove distorted thinking and assist them to achieve their educational goals. This study therefore examined the different risky sexual behavioural that are prevalent among the in-school adolescents, and to create awareness to scholars and researchers on the prevalence of these behaviours among the in-school adolescents in Benin metropolis.

Purpose of the study

The main purpose of this study was to examine the risky sexual behaviours that are prevalent among the in-school adolescents in Benin metropolis and to propose couselling strategies that would help to curtail such behaviours.

Research Question

1. What are the prevalent risky sexual behaviours among the in-school adolescents in Benin metropolis?

Methodology

The design for the study was the survey design using the descriptive method. The target population of this study was twenty thousand, four hundred and twenty (20,420) SS II students in the thirty-one (31) mixed public senior secondary schools in Benin Metropolis. Benin Metropolis consists of three local government areas of Egor, Oredo and Ikpoba-Okha Local Government Areas, Edo State.

The study adapted the “Adolescent Sex Behaviour Inventory'' developed by Friedrich (2004). Various researchers have successfully used the instrument. It consist of forty-two (42) items, self-report standardized instrument, developed to measure sex related behaviours, which could require therapeutic intervention. It measured risky sexual behaviours, non-conforming sexual Vol. 1 No. 1 June, 2018

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behaviours, sexual interest and sexual discomfort in adolescents. The instrument was of two (2) sections. Section A contained the information about the students' bio-data. Section B consisted of items on general adolescents sexual behaviour, using the four point rating scales of: Very Much Like Me (VMLM)= 4 points, Like Me (LM)= 3 points, Somewhat Like Me (SLM)= 2 points and Unlike Me (UM)= 1 point.

Experts in Measurement and Evaluation established the face and content validity of the

instruments by reviewing the items and making appropriate corrections. They also looked at the items after one another whether the items are adequate, well constructed and arranged, related to the variables of the study of the study. Although the instruments used were adaptations of standardized instruments, the researcher carried out a reliability test, using a test-retest method and a Pearson's coefficient r. value of 0.926 was obtained, which indicated that the instrument was reliable.

Result

Rq1: What are the prevalent risky sexual behaviours among in-school adolescents in Benin Metropolis?

Table 1: Mean Percentage of Prevalence of Risky Sexual Behaviours among in-School Adolescents

Risky sexual behaviour N Mean Std Mean Rank

Deviation Percentage

Drug taking before intercourse 135 1 . 4 2

.43 35.43 5

Sex without protection 135 1 . 5 4

.61 38.40 3

Multiple sex partners 135 1 . 5 6

. 5 1

38.89 2

I n v o l v i n g i n r a p e

1 3 5

1 . 5 2

. 7 7

37.96 4

E a r l y s e x u a l a c t i v i t i e s

1 3 5

1 . 5 6

. 5 5

38.95 1

V a l i d N ( l i s t w i s e )

1 3 5

The prevalent risky sexual behaviours among in-school adolescents are analyzed in Table 1. The table shows that early sexual activities ranked most

before intercourse ranked fifth with (35.43%);

making it the least prevalent risky sexual behaviour among the in school adolescents in Benin Metropolis.

Discussion

The finding showed that the prevalent risky sexual behaviour among the in-school adolescent as shown in Table 1 showed that Drug taking before intercourse was 35.43%: Sex without protection was 38.40% , Multiple sex partners was 38.89% , Involving in rape was 37.96% and Early sexual activities 38.95%. The result showed that early sex activities were the most prevalent among in-school adolescents in Benin Metropolis. Drug taking before sexual intercourse ranked fifth (5th), involving in rape ranked fourth (4th), sex without protection ranked third (3rd), multiple sex partners ranked second (2nd) and early sexual activities ranked first (1st). Alcohol, tobacco and drug use are consistently associated with adolescent sexual behaviours (Monica& Faulkner, 2010).

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Egbochuku & Adeyemi

be vulnerable to risky sexual behaviour because of the emerging physical and biological development.

This finding agrees with the findings of Puente, Zabalata, Rodriguez, Cabanas, Mireia and Bolibas (2013) and Ajibade, Oyedele, Ajayi, Amoo, Makinde and Adesina (2013). Their studies found that most students claimed to have regular sexual partners; some had casual partners while some had sex indiscriminately with all sorts of people for monetary gain or in exchange for undue favour. In addition, most of the adolescents do not take any preventive measures when they have sex, though some make use of condoms, while some use pills.

Moreover, the findings of Adedimeji (2008) supported the findings of this study, which showed that 23% of adolescents who had sexual intercourse could have taken alcohol or drugs before last sexual intercourse. In the same vein, the NDHS (2003) carried out a survey that revealed that over 16% of teenage females had first sexual inter-course by age fifteen( 15) while nearly half (49.4%) reported first sexual intercourse by age eighteen( 18). Similarly, 8.3% of youth are said to have first sexual intercourse at age fifteen( 15), while 36% of those aged twenty to twenty -four( 20 24) had first sexual intercourse at age( 18) , eighteen (National Population Commission, 2009). Roth and Brooks-Gunn ( 2000) substantiated this finding in the result of their study, which showed that youths with high propensity to take risk could have high tendency to participate in many problem behaviours, which may include drug use, alcoholism and unprotected sexual intercourse, at an early age.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the study has shown that the most prevalent risky sexual behaviour among the in-school adolescent is early sex while the least is drug taking before intercourse. Furthermore, sex risk-taking behaviour is closely related to other risks such as drug taking, smoking among others.

Recommendations

Based on the finding, the study recommended the following:

v Counsellors should encourage parents to give sex education early and discuss sex-related issues that are appropriate for their children in all stages to avoid the consequences of risky sexual behaviours.

v Counsellors should attend workshops, conferences and seminars to equip them with appropriate counselling skills, which are current and effective in addressing challenges among in-school adolescents.

v Schools should encourage extra-curricular

activities such as sports, drama and music, which may discourage risky sexual behaviours among adolescents.

v Parents should aid the well-being of their adolescent children by guiding and monitoring their sexual attitudes, especially the peers they associate with.

v Parents should share values with their adolescent children, such as being a good role model, teach them on how they can live a healthy life and avoid sex risky behaviours.

Build a positive and cordial relationship with the adolescent

References

Abdulhakim, H. (2008). Factors promoting risky sexual behaviour of high school adolescents. Unpublished Ph.D. thesis. Institute of Population Studies, Addis Ababa University.

Adedimeji, A. (2008). Perception of HIV/AIDS infection and condom among undergraduates in Nigeria. Department of Sociology, University of Ibadan Nigeria.

Adeyemi F.T. (2017). Un published Thesis; Influence of Cognitive Behavioural Therapyand Logotherapy on Risky Sexual Behaviours among In-school Adolescents in Benin Metropolis.

Ajibade, B.L., Oyedele, E.A., Ajayi, A.D., Amoo P.O ., Makinde O.Y & Adesina

Kam (2013). Adolescents health and management of sexual risk taking behaviour among selected secondary school students in Osun State, Nigeria.

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Alamrew, Z., Bedimo, M. & Azage, M. (2013). Risky sexual practices and associated factors f o r HIV/AIDS Infection among private college students in Bahir Dar City, Northwest Ethiopia. ISRN Public Health

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http://recapp.etr.org/recapp/

E g b o c h u k u , E . O . ( 2 0 1 2 ) . C o u n s e l l i n g a n d psychotherapy- the talking treatment: Discovery and creation within the counselling process.

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Eze I. R. (2014). Adolescents' attitude towards premarital sex. Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences, 5(10), 491-499

Fajonyomi, M.G. & Carew, R. (2003).Gender undertone of examination malpractice among university students: Counselling implication. A paper presented at the 27 th Annual Conference of the Counselling Association of Nigeria, Ibadan.

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