Influence Of Social Factors On The Reproductive Health Behaviour Of The Adolescents In Oyo State, Nigeria

Abstract

The study examined the relationship between demographic variables and the reproductive health behaviour of the adolescents in Oyo State, Nigeria. Descriptive survey research design was adopted for the study. The sample for the study consisted of 164 adolescents, male and female, in Oyo State, Nigeria. Multi stage sampling procedure was used for the selection of sample. The instrument used for the study was an author-constructed questionnaire tagged “Social Welfare Practice Questionnaire”(SWPQ) with 0.91and 0.93 internal consistency and revalidation reliability respectively. Chi-square statistics was used for testing the three hypotheses stated at 0.05 level of significance. The findings of the study were: there was no significant relationships between the level of education of the adolescents and reproductive health behaviour, p > 0.05; marital status, p > 0.05 and work experience p > 0.05.Based on these findings, it was recommended that specific training in adolescent reproductive health be given to the social welfare practitioners to improve their knowledge specially in this respect. It was concluded that the social welfare practitioners should embrace the principle of interdisciplinary collaboration for effective reproductive health information dissemination on the adolescents.

Keywords: Social welfare practitioners, reproductive health
information, adolescents.

African Journal for the Psychological Study of Social Issues Vol. 11 (1&2) 2008: pp. 64-73