Social factors influencing adolsecents\' susceptibility to hiv/aids/stis infection in Oyo State, Nigeria.

Abstract

No group stands to be as affected and infected by HIV as adolescents. The need to consider objective social factors with respect to the growing HIV/AIDS epidemic has been recognized by AIDS researchers in Africa as well as by the designers of health intervention models world wide. This study, therefore, investigated the social factors influencing adolescents\' susceptibility to HIV/AIDS/STIs infection in order to effectively plan and develop preventative educational strategies for adolescents in such a way that they can be more assertive and thus less vulnerable to STIs/HIV/AIDS infection. The research adopted a descriptive survey research design. A total of two hundred (N=200) randomly selected school-going secondary school adolescents supplied data for this study. One hundred of the participants were males while one hundred were females. Multiple regression analysis was adopted to answer the two research questions raised in the study. The analysis showed that four social variables of environment, poverty, peer pressure and family factors were significant predictors of the adolescent susceptibility to HIV/AIDS infection. The need for counseling services in schools for adolescents and parents by way of parental education are strongly recommended. More importantly, poverty alleviation programmes of government should be strengthened as poverty seems to be the pivot on which other factors revolve.

International Journal of emotiaonl psychology and sport ethics Vol. 9 2007: pp. 89-98