Secondary school students' beliefs of the prevalence of premarital sexual activities in Ilorin metropolis

Abstract

This study was set to investigate secondary school students' beliefs of premarital sexual activities in Ilorin Metropolis. The population used for the study was all secondary school students in Ilorin metropolis. Multistage sampling technique was used to randomly select 9 secondary schools from the three local government areas represented in Ilorin metropolis. A sample of 540 respondents were then randomly selected. Relevant data were collected using the instrument tagged “Secondary School Students' Beliefs of Premarital Sexual Activities Questionnaire (SSSBPSAQ)”. The data collected were analyzed using frequencycounts and percentages while t-test and ANOVA were used to test the three hypotheses formulated for the study. The result of the study revealed a high perception of premarital sexual activities among students in Ilorin metropolis. It was recommended that parents, teachers, counselors, psychologists and the government should be involved in enlightenment programmes to guide students towards reducing the premarital sexual activities.