Sexual Practices among Senior Students in Private Secondary Schools in Uyo, Southern Nigeria

Abstract

Sexual practices of adolescents have enormous consequences on their health and career outcome. The objective of this study was to assess the sexual practices among senior secondary students in private schools in Uyo, Nigeria. This was a descriptive crosssectional study. Data were collected using structured, self administered questionnaire and analyzed with SPSS version 23 software. Level of significance was set at 0.05. A total of 353 respondents participated in the study. The mean age was 14.84±1.10 years with a male to female ratio of 1:1.17. The prevalence of sexual intercourse was 14.2%. The mean age of sexual debut was 11.7±2.60 years, being significantly lower in males, (10.83 ±2.64 years) than females,  (12.67±2.42 years) (p=0.00). Risky sexual behaviour included low contraceptive use 15 (30.0%) and having multiple sexual partners 9(18%). A total of 25.8% males and 9.0% females engaged in pornography (p=0.00). Also, 8.6% of males and 2.6% females both masturbated and had sexually active friends respectively (p=0.01). In view of the early sexual debut and risky sexual practices reported among senior secondary students in private schools in Uyo, there is need for early integration of sexuality education into the curriculum of such schools to improve sexual behaviour among the students.

Keywords: Sexual practices, senior secondary students, adolescents, sexuality education, Nigeria