Social Factors as Predictors of Premarital Sex among Secondary School Adolescents in South-East States Nigeria

Abstract

The study investigated Social Factors as Predictor of Premarital sex among Secondary School Adolescents in South-East in Nigeria. One research question guided the study and one hypothesis were formulated and tested at 0.05 level of significance. The study employed a correlational survey design as the study sought to investigate relationship between the independent and dependent variables. The population of the study comprised 78,740 senior secondary school (SS II) students in the 1,230 public secondary schools in South East States of Nigeria. The sample for the study was two thousand four hundred and forty-one (2,441) students selected using stratified random sampling techniques. A researcher developed questionnaire titled “Social Factors Questionnaire (SFQ) and premarital sex Questionnaire (PSQ) was used for the study and was validated by three lecturers from the Department of Psychological Foundations Facility of Education, Abia State University, Uturu. The instrument yielded a reliability coefficient of 0.91 which implied that the instrument was reliable for the study. Research question was answered using simple linear regression, while t-test statistics associated with regression analysis was used to test hypotheses at 0,05 level of significance. The findings from the study reveal among others that family structure predicts premarital sex to a high extent among secondary school adolescent. Again, the corresponding hypotheses show that family structure significantly predicts adolescent involvement in premarital sex in Nigeria. Based on the findings, it was recommended among other things that schools should educate parents aboutadolescent’s development, communication, and how their attitudes, values influence their children sexual behaviour.