Youth sexuality and youth age at first sexual intercourse in Edo central, Nigeria.

Abstract

This study involved 783 randomly selected youths, ages 10-24 years from Edo State Central, Nigeria. This study examined youth sexuality and age at first sexual intercourse. The selected socio-economic characteristics of the youth examined included age, sex, marital status, educational status and religion. It was revealed that the number of youths (53.6%) who had not experienced first sexual intercourse was in excess of their counterparts (46.4%) who had. It was also observed that youth age at first sexual intercourse was 17.58 years. The median and modal ages were 18 and 24 years respectively. Variation in youth age, sex, religion and age at first sexual intercourse were observed, but found not to be statistically significant (p>0.05), using the chi-square statistic. Finally, it is advocated that such information is important to stakeholders for helping the youth who would certainly not be able to face the challenges of adulthood when they engage in early sexual activity.

Keywords: Youth, Sexuality, Age, Sexual Intercourse, Edo Central