Correlates of Risky Sexual Behaviours of Adolescents in Rivers State: A Study of Peer Pressure and Social Media Influences

Abstract

Background: This study investigated the correlates of risky sexual behaviours of adolescents in Rivers State. Six objectives with corresponding research questions and hypotheses were formulated to guide the study. Materials and Methods: The study adopted a correlational research design. The population of the study comprised of all 93,076 in- School Senior Secondary School adolescents in Rivers State. A multistage sampling procedure was used to select a sample of 880 from six LGAs in the three senatorial zones of the State. The instrument for data collection was a validated self-structured questionnaire with reliability coefficients of 0.852 for peer pressure and 0.733 for media using Cronbach alpha. Data collected was analyzed using IBM SPSS (version 25), percentages were used to answer research questions, and binary logistic regression was used to test hypotheses at 0.05 alpha levels. Results and Discussions: The result of the study showed 14.6% prevalence of sexual behaviours. Also, the findings revealed that 73.2% did not used condoms at sexual debut, 7.3% had sexual intercourse with more than one person, 2.6% had paid sexual intercourse, 2.2% have had sexual intercourse with sex worker and 11.3% have had oral sex. Conclusions: The result of the study established a significant relationship between peer pressure and sexual behaviours (p < 0.05) and result revealed a significant association between social media influence and sexual behaviours (p <0.05). The study recommended that sexual health education be taught early right from the home by parents/ guardians and in school by teachers and school health officers with emphasis on the identified correlates peer pressure and media influence. Parents should not purchase high tech android phones for their children and should monitor what they do with phones provided.