Self esteem, academic achievement motivation and personality as psychological variables affecting the sexual behaviour of some Nigerian adolescents

Abstract

The study investigated the influence of some identified psychological variables (viz: self-esteem, personality trait, academic achievement), on the sexual behaviour of 384 randomly selected Nigerian adolescents. Four research questions were answered using 0.05 level of significance as point of judgment of findings on analysed data. The Analysis of Variance, and the Multiple Classification Analysis as well as the t-test value of difference were the statistical analysis used in the study. Findings from the analysed data revealed that self-esteem, academic achievement motivation and personality traits(extraversion-introversion) of Nigerian adolescents significantly affect their sexual behaviour (F=5.627 df=3,p< 0.05)There were significant influence of adolescent self esteem and personality traits on their sexual behaviour, the study however, did not establish the existence of a strong influence between academic achievement motivation and the sexual behaviour of the adolescents in this study. Implications of these findings for adolescent sex counselling were discussed.

African Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology and Sport Facilitation Vol. 6 2004: 8-13