School Location and School Ownership as Determinant of School Going Adolescents’ Risky Sexual Behaviour in Yenagoa Educational Zone of Bayelsa State, Nigeria

Abstract

The study examines school locality and school ownership as determinants of adolescents’ risky sexual behaviour in Yenagoa Educational Zone of Bayelsa State, Nigeria. Two research questions were raised to guide the study as well as two hypothesis were formulated and tested at 0.05 level of significance. The study employed descriptive design. This design was used because the paper made use of a self-designed and structured questionnaire titled School Locality and School Ownership on Adolescents’ Risky Sexual Behaviour Questionnaire (SLSOARSBQ). The instrument was validated by two experts and yield a reliability coefficient of 0.86. The population of the study comprised of all school going adolescents both in public and private secondary schools in Yenagoa Educational Zone of Bayelsa State, Nigeria, with a total population of 8,939 in all the 35 public schools and 3,848 in all the 29 private schools. The simple random sampling technique was adopted to select a total of five public and five private schools in Yenagoa Educational Zone with a total sample size of 400 school-going adolescents. The instrument was distributed with the aid of two research assistants who were briefed. 395 questionnaires were retrieved indicating 99% response and subjected to analysis using mean and standard deviation for answering the research questions. The spearman rank was adopted in analysing the stated hypotheses. From the analysis, the study found out that school locality and school ownership had significant relationship with adolescents’ risky sexual behaviour in Yenagoa Educational Zone of Bayelsa State, Nigeria. Based on the findings, it was recommended that school counsellors should work with community organizations to provide school-going adolescents with access to resources such as contraceptive and counselling that can support their sex health.