Sexual Autonomy As A Predictor Of Unwanted Pregnancy Among Couples In Nigeria

Abstract

The study established the relationship between sexual autonomy and unwanted pregnancy among couples. The sample consisted of two hundred and ten couples in Ibadan, randomly selected from teaching, business and the civil service. The range of participants' age was between 31 and 47 with a mean of 44.0 and standard deviation of 7.79. Three hypotheses were postulated and tested. The instrument was an author – constructed questionnaire with 0.69 reliability coefficient. Analysis of data was done using Pearson product moment correlation. The findings of the study were: there is no significant relationship between sexual autonomy among the literate and illiterate couples and unwanted pregnancy: there is a positive significant relationship between sexual autonomy among the illiterate couples and unwanted pregnancy; and there is equally no significant relationship among literate couples and unwanted pregnancy. It was recommended that, guidance counseling, psychologists, social workers and others in the helping profession to include family, marital and sex ther apy when counseling couples. It was concluded that couples should be provided with reproductive education and that, family planning devices should be embraced.

International Journal of emotiaonl psychology and sport ethics Vol. 8 2006: pp. 67-73