GENDER DIFFERENCE IN THE SEXUAL BEHAVIOUR OF SECONDARY SCHOOL ADOLESCENTS IN OGUN- EAST SENATORIAL DISTRICT OF OGUN STATE

By AYODELE KOLAWOLE O. (MCASSON)

Mayflower School (JSS) Ikenne

P.O.BOX 683, Sagamu, Ogun State. E-mail: ayodelewole@ yahoo.com Phone: +2348060253428, +2348055676925.

ABSTRACT

This study investigated some reproductive health issues of Nigerian adolescents. It made use of stratified random sampling technique in selection of 600 adolescents from twenty (20) secondary schools from Ogun-East Senatorial District of Ogun State. The age range of the respondents was between ages 14 and 19 years with mean age of 15.4 and standard deviation of 3.13. The expost-facto research design was employed. A 36-item self developed questionnaire of three subscales on sexual reproductive knowledge; sexual attachment behaviour and sexual initiating/experimenting behavoiur was used in generating data for the study. The analyses of the four hypotheses were done at 0.05 margin of error with t-test, PPMC and analysis of variance statistics with the following findings: A significant difference was noticed on male and female adolescents sexual exploratory behaviour; reproductive health knowledge; sexual initiating/ experimenting behaviour; and sexual behaviour based on self monitoring. On the basis of the findings, it was suggested that adequate parent-child interpersonal relationship and active listening to teens languages and emotional concerns should be employed by the parents, if they are to assist their teens in building a viable sex lives.

Key words: Sexual exploratory behaviour, adolescents, sexual debut, reproductive health, sexual initiating and experimenting behaviour.

Introduction For more than a decade now, various non-governmental Organizations (NGOs) and government agencies and parastatals have been investigating adolescents reproductive health issues. Studies in Nigeria have shown that sexual activities have taken a high dimension among unmarried youths with higher incidences being recorded among urban girls and boys (Akindele-Oscar & Ayodele, 2004; Makinde, 2004; Ogunsanya, 2007). It is so glaring, therefore, that Nigerian youths are becoming predominantly pre-marital in their sexual activities. Despite religious, cultural and legal sanctions against premarital sex in many parts of the world, dramatic change in sexual attitudes and interactions have become a common and widely accepted part of romantic relationships (Baron & Bryne, 1997 in Akindele-Oscar & Ayodele, 2004). Ariyo (2004) lamented on the increased incidence of adolescents sexual behaviour as well as the decreased age of sexual debut especially for girls. The magnitude of the present day hetero-sexual behaviour can be traceable to several factors ranging from the developmental increase in height, size and weight to the high libido, lopsidedness in societal values, modem technology, and career orientation of parents. On the other hand, Ogunsanya (2007) citing McDowell (2002) affirmed that physical and emotional closeness between a boy and a girl is like a drug, the more you get the more you want. Once the momentum is underway, it is difficult to slow down to stop they will end up having sex. A number of studies conducted on premarital sex have shown that a high proportion of adolescents are currently sexually active (Falaye & Moronkola, 1999; McDowell, 2002; Akindele-oscar & Ayodele, 2004; Ogunsanya, 2007). According to the review of McDowell (2002), 91 percent of all girls who started dating at age twelve have had sex before graduation from school. 56 percent of those who started at fifteen and 20precent of those who began dating at age sixteen have had sex also before graduation from school. Also in his study, three quarters of the teens surveyed (77%) had an intimate encounter (sex) with someone of the opposite (sex) and that the possibility of kissing or other intimate physical

activity had been present. The implication of McDowells study is that early dating and physical intimacy tend to lead to engagement in premarital sex. Empirically, Ogunsanya (2007) in her study of adolescents perception of sex symbol, values, risks and misconceptions reported that 77% of girls from coeducational school see abstinences as a forced value and that having sex early makes them discover their identity. 37% of the boys on the other hand perceived sex as love while 40% of boys believe that a relationship without sex cannot last. This might be the reason why Akindele-Oscar & Ayodele (2004) established that undergraduates lack of knowledge of reproductive health has a significant relationship with their permissive sexual expressions. This tend to show, that engaging in casual sex was not necessarily always a deliberate choice, often times it was due to lack of adequate knowledge or complete ignorance on the subject matter. And that an individual with adequate and sufficient knowledge on reproductive health matters would be able to know how to keep self or play safe and not necessarily engage in complete abstinence from sex. The problem There are enough observable indicators in our society to suggest that male and female adolescents no longer regarded virginity as a virtue as no sex before marriage is fading out gradually. Unintended, unwanted and unwise pregnancies sounded to be the first alarm of sexuality and poor display of knowledge on reproductive health, followed by the contemporary horrors of sexually transmissible diseases. These situations affirm the urgency of the attention that adolescent sexual issues demand. Therefore, the focus of this study is to empirically determine some reproductive health issues of adolescents focusing on sexual exploratory, sexual initiating, as well as experimenting behaviours. What then is:
1. Sexual exploratory behaviour?

Sexual exploratory behaviour is likened to the sexual networking among adolescents. Sexual networking according to Cooksey (2002) refers to the various attempts made by the adolescents to initiate their age groups to

sexual activities. Such sexual initiation includes adolescent friendship, teenage dating relationships and experimentation. Zhao, Gao, & Yang (2005) lamented on the odds of sexual networking as they may not only predict early sexual intercourse but may also take place outside dating or steady relationships without the knowledge of or the use of the condom.
2. Sexual attachment behaviour?

Sexual attachment behaviour is a bond that exists between a boy and a girl. This bond is a manifestation of the physical changes in their body which result in social sophistication, social awareness, love and interest in sex.
3. Sexual initiating /experimenting behaviour?

These are behavoiurs that lures the youngsters into sex. These behaviours emanated from holding of hands, kissing, hugging, romancing and caressing. Tomoloju (2004) described the moral twist in adolescent sexual behaviour through the print and electronic media that show pornographic pictures, blue films, immoral home videos, adverts, uncensored television programmes like the one showed in THE GLAMOUR GIRLS and the lukewarm attitude of the government to commercial sex hawkers whom the adolescents see daily.
4. Self-monitoring

behaviour?

Self-monitoring behaviour as regards sexual behaviour of adolescents could be seen as the degree or the extent at which the youngsters present themselves especially as the situation demanded. In the words of Makinde (2004) the high self-monitors manifest presentable behaviours which is not truly part of them; they respond to situational cues and decide on appropriate behaviour. The low self-monitors on the other hand do not strive to make good impressions; they focus on the inner personal qualities and attitude. They adopt the theory of let me be me because they are themselves always, he concluded. Empirically, he reported a significant difference in the attachment behaviour of high and low self monitors.

Hypotheses 1. There is no significant gender difference in the adolescents sexual exploratory behaviour.
2. There is no significant relationship between adolescents sexual attachment

behaviour, reproductive health knowledge and sexual experimenting behaviour. 3. There is no significant gender influence on the adolescents sexual exploratory behaviour and their reproductive health knowledge. 4. There is no significant gender difference in the adolescents sexual initiating/experimenting self-monitoring. 5. There is no significant gender difference in the adolescents sexual exploratory behaviour based on self-monitoring. Design The study adopted a descriptive survey research design of expost-facto type. This is so because this method enabled the researcher to carefully analyze the sampled population with a view to inferring the reasons for the attitudes of adolescents towards premarital sex. Population The target population of the study was made up of all adolescents in both public and private secondary schools in Ogun-east Senatorial District of Ogun State. Sample and Sampling Technique A sample of six hundred (600) senior secondary school two (SS2) students was used for the study. The selected sample was based on proportional probability sampling (PPS) method in which the district was stratified into three (3) administrative zones based on school type (public/private and mixed/single-sex schools), school location (urban and rural) and boarding system. From the zones, twenty (20) secondary schools were selected. However, the schools and the participants were selected using simple random sampling method in which all the

students and schools in each zone had equal chance of being selected or included. The participants age range from 14-19years with a mean of 15.4 and a standard deviation of 5.13. Out of the 600 participants, 386 were female (64.3%) and 214 males (35.7%). Instruments The research instrument for the research was Adolescents Sexual Exploratory Behaviour Inventory (ASEBI) The 36-item self-developed questionnaire consisted of 3 subscales on sexual reproductive knowledge, sexual attachment behaviour and sexual initiating/experimenting behaviour each with 12 items constructed in five-point likert format measured along very much like me (5), much like me (4), like me (3), unlike me (2), and very much unlike me (1). Sample items include for sexual reproductive knowledge: I see no reason why I should be worried about the possibility of having AIDS; for sexual attachment behaviour: I always go out with the opposite sex; and for sexual initiating/experimenting behaviour: I easily give in to sex when caressed. However, in order to explore information on the self-monitoring aspects of the adolescents, 5 items out of the twenty items on physical Attractiveness Index Questionnaire of Ayodele, Bello and Iro-Idoro (2008) was adapted and incorporated into the demographical section of this research instrument. Validation of Instrument The instrument was validated by giving it to experts to examine and assert its suitability and appropriateness regarding the item content and purpose of study. A reliability test using the test retest method was also carried out to determine the reliability of the instrument. The results produced the reliability estimate of 0.83 for the scale on sexual reproductive knowledge, 0.66 for sexual attachment behaviour, and 0.88 for sexual initiating/experimenting behaviour.

Procedure The researcher with the help of two other assistants administered the inventory on the participants. The data collection lasted 2 weeks. The completed inventories were thoroughly checked to ensure that they were properly filled. All the inventories were returned. Thus, 100% success of inventory administration was recorded. Analysis was carried out using analysis of variance (ANOVA) and t-test statistical and Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficient. Results were tested for at the 0.05 level of significance. RESULTS Table 1: Descriptive Results of the Respondents S/N 1 Age: 14-15 years 16-17years 18-19 years 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Mean age Has a boyfriend/girlfriend Mean number of sex partners Has once had sexual intercourse Had sexual intercourse in the last six month Mean age of sexual debut Had experienced attempted forced sex Sexual initiating behaviour e.g. wooing, touching Sexual experimenting behaviour e.g. kissing, caressing The descriptive results of the respondents of the study are shown in Table 1 above. The mean age of the respondents (male and female) was 15 years. 198 (92.5%) male has girlfriends, 361 (93.5%) female has boyfriends, while the mean number of sex partners for male was 3.5 and 1.7 for female. Results on the experience of sexual intercourse revealed that 191 (89.3%) male and 352 (91.2%) female have once had sexual intercourse in the last six month. The table revealed further the mean age of sexual debut for male to be 13 years and 14 years for female. Also, 13 Variables Male N=214 67.8 26.6 5.6 15.5 92.5 3.5 89.3 89.3 14.5 6.1 92.5 87.9 Female N= 386 65.8 28.2 6.0 15.2 93.5 1.7 91.2 91.2 13.3 28.8 45.9 59.8 Total N=600 66.5 27.7 5.8 15.4 93.5 2.6 90.5 90.5 13.9 20.7 62.5 69.8

(6.1%) male and 111 (28.8%) female had experienced attempted forced sex or forced sex. Table 2: Difference between male and female adolescents sexual exploratory behaviour. Male N = 214 X = 41.13 SD = 5.81 Female N = 386 X = 39.06 SD = 5.94 2.07 598 11.752 1.96 S* Mean difference df t-cal t-crit Remark

From table 2, it can be observed that the obtained value of t=11.752 is greater than critical value of 1.96 at 598 degree of freedom and .05 level of significance. This implies that a gender difference do exist in the sexual exploratory behaviour of the respondents. Therefore, the null hypotheses which stated that there is no significant gender difference in the adolescents sexual exploratory behaviour was rejected. Table 3: Correlation matrix of the Relationship between sexual attachment behaviour, reproductive health knowledge and sexual experimenting behaviour Variables Sexual attachment Reproductive health Sexual experimenting behaviour .701** .598* 1.000

knowledge Sexual Attachment 1.000 .633* Reproductive Health knowledge .633** 1.000 Sexual Experimenting behaviour .701** .508* ** Correlation is significant at the .05 level (2-tailed) * Correlation is significant at the .01 level (2-tailed)

The results in Table 3 indicated that there is a significant relationship among the variables of the study. A significant high relationship was observed between sexual attachment and reproductive health issues (r=.633 and sexual experimenting behaviour (r = .701) while high relationship was observed between

sexual experimenting behaviour and reproductive health knowledge (.598). The findings imply that adolescents sexual attachment behaviour, reproductive health issues and sexual experimenting behaviour are positively related to one another. Table 4: Summary of Analysis of variance between male and female adolescents sexual behaviour and reproductive health knowledge ANOVA Source of SS df MS s Sig. variation Regression 2032.715 4 508.179 Residual 21499.683 595 36.134 14.064 .000 Total 23532.398 599 The calculated value of f = 14.064 which is greater than the critical value of f = 2.38 indicates that sexual behaviour and reproductive health knowledge have significant influence on male and female adolescents. Therefore, the null hypothesis of no significant gender influence on the adolescents sexual exploratory behaviour and their reproductive health knowledge is rejected in favour of the alternate hypothesis. This means that sexual exploratory behaviour and reproductive health knowledge have significant influence on male and female adolescents. Table 5: Difference between male and female adolescents sexual initiating/experimenting behaviours. Male N = 214 X = 33.93 SD = 9.88 Female N = 386 X =28.57 SD = 7.18 Mean difference 2.07 Df 598 t-cal 3.203 t-crit. 1.96 Remark S*

The results in table 5 showed that a significant difference existed between male and female adolescents sexual initiating or experimenting behaviour. Male adolescent differ significantly from their female counterpart (t cal=3.203 > t crit = 1.96; df = 598; P < .05). Male adolescents had higher sexual initiating/experimenting behaviour than the female adolescents

Table 6: ANOVA table for gender sexual exploratory behaviour of high and low self-monitoring adolescents. Source of SS 1865.621 19081.073 20946.694 Df 4 595 599 MS 466.405 32.069 F Sig

variation Regression Residual Total

14.572

.103

The result in the Table 6 shows that a statistical significant difference exists in the sexual exploratory behaviour of male and female adolescents who are high in self-monitoring and those who are not (P<.05, F4/595 = 14.572). Therefore, the null hypothesis of no significant gender difference in the adolescents sexual exploratory behaviour based on self-monitoring was rejected. Discussion of Findings Findings of the first hypothesis revealed a statistical significant difference between male and female adolescents exploratory behaviour. The only assumption that can be deduced from this finding is that male and female preferred proportions of the varying physical attributes to what constitute love. Thus, male adolescents quest for love are acted by the physical attributes of the female (such as facial expression, skin tone, waist/hip-ratio, breast size and dressing), which makes their propensity of sexual exploration to be higher. This findings is in tune with Makinde (2007)s conception of adolescents sexual networking in which male adolescents busy themselves quietly and strategically planning on how to capture their prey (female) and experimentally having sex with them. The findings also lend credence to the issue of culture supporting male sexual behaviour (AkindeleOscar and Ayodele, 2004; McDowell, 2002), whereby male show more preferences to sexuality than female (Jiali-Ye, 2006). The second hypothesis revealed a significant relationship between sexual attachment behaviour, reproductive health knowledge and sexual experimenting behaviour. The implication of this is that how knowledgeable the adolescent is in

terms of reproductive health determines the totality of his/her sexual behaviour either for good or bad. The finding of this study is line with the position of Ogunsanya (2007) that adolescents nowadays sees abstinence as a forced value and that having sex early makes them discover their identity. The third hypothesis stated there is no significant difference in the sexual behaviors of male and female adolescents who are sexually informed and those who do not. The result indicated a significant difference. This result is in support of Akindele Oscar and Ayodele (2004) that engaging in casual sex among their subjects was not necessarily a deliberate choice, often times it was due to lack of adequate knowledge or complete ignorance on the subject matter. And that individual with adequate and sufficient knowledge on reproductive health would be able to know how to keep safe and not necessarily engage in complete abstinence from sex. Regarding the forth hypothesis that stated that there is no significant difference in the sexual initiating/experimenting behaviors of male and female adolescents was also rejected. This finding further revealed that the sexual initiating behaviors (wooing, touching, pecking and hugging) is higher in male as result shows that 92.5% of all the males exhibit these behaviors while 45.9%of the female exhibit this with a sharp exception in wooing. While 87.9% of the male and 59.8% of the female exhibits the experimenting behaviors (Kissing, Caressing and having sex). This result corroborates Makinde (2007) and Ekanem, Afolabi, Nuga & Adebajo (2005) that female adolescents often time fall prey to the sexual networking strategies of their male counterpart. Also, social and cultural support was found in favour of male sexual initiating / experimenting behaviour (McDowell, 2002, Akindele-Oscar and Ayodele, 2004). Finally, a significant difference was also established between the sexual exploratory behaviour of male and female who are high in self-monitoring and those who do not. This is not unrelated to the public support giving to males dating and cultural bias against the female during dating period because they would be considered ignoble as revealed by Reis, Nezlek and Whealer (1980), Synder and others (1985), Makinde (2004), Ayodele, Bello and Iro-Idoro (2008).

Conclusion In the exploration and demand for love by the adolescents, it has been established that both male and female adolescents go extra mile to indulge themselves in premarital sex in spite of having a fore-knowledge of its consequences (STI, unwanted pregnancy, early marriage, unwanted and unplanned pregnancy/baby, unsafe abortion, and terminated career). Also, males are much likely to initiate and experiment sexual behaviours compared to their female counterparts. Recommendations Based on the outcome of this research, it is recommended that the home which is the first socialization unit and first contact of the child needs to play a significant role in educating the child about sexuality (reproductive healthy knowledge) rather than shying away from it or sees it as so sacred to discuss. In the word of Van-Pelt (2002), Puberty, it isnt a disease. You dont catch it. Everybody goes through it, yet no one wants to talk about it. When sex education begins from home, hardly would our female adolescents fall a victim of circumstances of males sexual tricks. While male and female adolescents will focus their mind more on what would better their chosen career or future. It is very pertinent to orientate and re-orientate parents on how to handle their teens. Parents must come to the knowledge of how their teens grow and change; if they are to assist them through this important developmental stage of sexual exploration. Adequate parent-child interpersonal relationship and active listening to teens languages and emotional concerns could be of great help. Government should ensure the censors of home videos, films, cyber caf that endorse pornographic materials. Also proper awareness and public enlightenment should be organized by government and non-governmental organization to expose the affective and psychological effect of viewing pornography especially among young adults and teens.

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