Demographics as predictors of practice of HIV voluntary counselling among secondary school adolescents in Edo State, Nigeria

Abstract

This study assessed the demographic variables predicting the practice of HIV Voluntary Counselling among secondary school adolescents in Edo State. Thus, a descriptive survey research was adopted for the study. One thousand, nine hundred and eighty eight (1988) secondary school adolescents were sampled from secondary schools in Edo State using multistage sampling technique. A validated instrument titled “Practice of HIV Voluntary Counselling Questionnaire (PHVCQ)” developed by the researcher was used to obtain data. The instrument was content validated by experts. The reliability of the instrument was determined using Cronbach Alpha. The alpha level showed the following result: practice of HIV Voluntary Counselling = 0.75. The instrument was administered on the study participants by the researcher and six Research Assistants. Data collected were analysed using Multiple Regressions. The analysis yielded the following results: demographics of respondents predicted practice of HIV voluntary counselling among secondary school adolescents in Edo State. Based on the findings of the study, it was recommended that: government should put policy in place to provide free HIV voluntary counselling for adolescents aged 10-18 years in schools and that school counsellors should intensify efforts through enlightenment campaigns on the need for students to participate in HIV voluntary counselling and HIV/AIDS education.

Keywords: Demographics, Predictors, Practice, HIV Voluntary Counselling and Adolescents