Parental influence on adolescent sexual behaviour among secondary school students in Ogbomoso, Nigeria

Abstract

One of the aims of social work as a discipline is to improve the quality of life of families by finding solutions to inherent problems such as sexual behaviour in the adolescent. This study investigated the influence of parental communication and parental monitoring on adolescents’ sexual behaviour in Ogbomoso, South-West Nigeria. Data was collected using self-administered structured questionnaire. 860 participants were selected through multi-stage sampling method. 99% of the participants were found to be close to both parents, 63% of which were closer to their mothers. 52% of the participants already had a boyfriend/girlfriend, 40% had kissed and 14% had previously had sexual intercourse as at time of the review. 64% of participants’ parents never had the knowledge of theses happenings in the life of the participants. Monitoring measures adopted by parents included standing rules (34%), banning from visiting opposite sex (28%), stay-at-home order (21%), and tracing adolescents’ movements when they go out (20%) and timing their outings (13%). Some of the avenues participants employed in accessing their sexual partners despite parental monitoring include: when sent on errands (18%), during school periods (15%), sneaking out of the home (9%) and lying to their parents to see boyfriend/girlfriend (7%). A significant relationship was found between participants’ sexual behaviour and parental communication and parental monitoring (p<0.05). The study recommended increased parental involvement in communication and monitoring of adolescent sexual behaviour, bearing in mind the consequences of risky sexual behaviours on the adolescents’ health and the society at large.

Keywords: parents, sexual behaviour, adolescent, sex, social work