FORMS AND PREVALENCE OF PREMARITAL SEXUAL PRACTICES AMONG ADOLESCENT SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS IN MAYO-BELWA LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA OF ADAMAWA STATE, NIGERIA
Keywords:
Adolescents, Premarital Sex, Prevalence, Sexual Practice, StudentsAbstract
Adolescence is a transitional stage in human development that occurs at puberty into adulthood. Contemporarily, is marked with early social and sexual exposures that result to health, psycho-social, and economic problems. An alarming number of adolescents are actively involved in premarital sexual practices, which negatively results to reproductive health challenges. This study determined the forms and prevalence premarital sexual practices among secondary school students in Mayo-Belwa L.G.A, Adamawa State, Nigeria. Quantitative and qualitative method of data collection was adopted for the achievement of the study objectives. Quantitatively, through self-administration of 400 semi-structured and pre-tested questionnaires, a multi-stage sampling technique was used in selecting study participants, and data were analyzed descriptively. Qualitative data was generated through Focus Group Discussions (FGDs) and In-Depth Interviews (IDIs) among 106 purposively selected participants and analyzed thematically. Among the 395 returned responses’ during questionnaire survey, more than a half 206 (52.2%) were females and 189 (47.8%) were males. The prevalence of premarital sexual intercourse had an alarming rate of 273 (69.1%), as 187 (47.3%) had been exposed for about 1–2 times, as 86 (21.8%) had three or more times. 41 (10.4%) had anal sex, 76 (19.2%) had had oral sex, and 305 (77.2%) had ever masturbated. Among the 206 female respondents, 18.0% had practiced genital rubbing. Conclusively, the prevalence of sexual intercourse and masturbation practices are high; couple with other forms of sexual practices. Therefore, the study recommends that there should be sensitization to inculcate abstinence and chastity, provide adolescents with the right decision making skills, and with reproductive health education
References
Abdissa, B. Addisie, M. & Seifu, W. (2017). Premarital Sexual Practices, Consequences and Associated Factors among Regular Undergraduate Females Students in Ambo University, Oromia Regional State, Central Ethiopia 2015; Health Sci j; 11: 1
African Population and Health Research Center Policy brief .(2013). Protecting in-school adolescents from HIV/AIDS, STIs and Unwanted Pregnancy. www.realising.rights.org/docs/newsletter/adolescentspolicybrieffinal(2)Accessed on June 19th, 2019
Anene, J. O. Ojinaka, E. P. & Ndie, E. C. (2017). Variables Influencing Premarital Sex among Secondary School Adolescents in Anambra State Nigeria. J Community Health Nursing Volume 3 Issue 4
Babatunde, E. O. (2019). Investigation of factors that induce premarital sexual intercourse among adolescents in secondary schools in Nigeria. European Scientific Journal, 15(7), 129-143. http://dx.doi.org/10.19044/esj.2019.v15n7p129
Becker, T. Chin, M. and Bates, N. (2022). Measuring Sex, Gender Identity and Sexual Orientation: Washington (DC). National Academics Press (US): 2022. The National Academics Collections Reports Funded by National Institutes’ of Health; PMID: 35286054; Bookshelf ID: NBK578625: Free Books and Documents of Sciences, Engineering and Medicines (NASEM). (2022). https://doi.org/10.17226/26424
Chihurumnanya, A. Lawrance, U. O. Benedict, N. A. Uche D. & Nnenna A. L.O. (2016). Premarital Sex, Safer Sex and Factors Influencing Secondary School Students in Ebonyi Local Government Area of Ebonyi State Nigeria. J Community Med Public Health Care 3: 012
Cortez, R. Seemeen, S. Marinda, E. & Odutolu O. (2016). Adolescent Fertility and Sexual Health in Nigeria: Determinants and Implications; Health, Nutrition and Population. The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development; World Bank 1818 H Street NW Washington DC 20433, USA, available at www.worldbank.org/hnp
Durowade, et al. (2017). Early sexual debut: prevalence and risk factors among secondary school students in Ido-ekiti, Ekiti state, South-West Nigeria. Afri Health Sci. 2017;17(3):614-622. https://dx.doi.org/10.4314/ahs.v17i3.3
Elekeh, R. I. Enwereji, E. E. & Odina, C. (2021). Factors and conditions that influence teenage pregnancy among in-school adolescents in Umuahia North Local Government Area (L.G.A) of Abia State, Nigeria. International Journal of Health Statistics, 1(1), 15-20
Hagisso, S. N. & Handiso, T. B. (2019). Prevalence of Premarital Sexual Practice and Associated Factors among Goba Town High School Students, South East – Ethiopia. J Clin Care Med; 4: 028 – 035. https://doi.org/10.29328/journal.jcicm.1001022
Kar, S.K. Choudhury, A. Singh, A.P. (2015). Understanding Normal Development of Adolescent Sex; A bumpy ride J Hum ReprodSci 2015; 8:70-4 available at http://www.Jhrsonline.org/text.asp 2015/8/2/70/158594
Max, L. C. (2007). “Sustainable Adamawa Development Report”,MLC Press, University of Westminster, London UK.
National Bureau of Statistics. (2016). Nigeria Population Profiles; Mayo-Belwa L.G.A. Adamawa State; at www.nigerianstat.gov.ng
Odimegwu, C. & Somefun, D. O. (2017). Ethnicity, Gender and Risky Sexual Behaviour among Nigerian Youth: an alternative explanation; journal of BioMed Central Reproductive Health 14: 16 DOI 10.1186/s12978 – 017 – 0284 – 7
Oluwatoyin, F. E. & Modupe, O. O. (2014). Risky Sexual Behaviour among Secondary School Adolescents in Ibadan North Local Government Area, Nigeria. IOSR Journal of Nursing and Health Sciences (IOSR – JNHS): 3 (3), 34 – 44, at www.iosrjounals.org
Sowole, J. (2015). Nigerian Adolescent’s Population hit 60.4 – August 15. This day www.thisdaylife.comfarticles/npc- nigeria-adolescent-population-has-hut-60.4m 1118345
United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs. (UNDESA). (2022). The World Population November 15th, 2022 Available at www.un.org>desa>world population-r----, Accessed on 23rd November, 2022.
Viatonu, O. & Oladipupo-Okorie, B.O. (2014). Pre-marital Sex among Secondary School Students: Do mass media and peer group matter?” International Journal of Development and Sustainability, Vol. 3 No. 7, pp. 1549-1557.
WHO. (2015). Adolescent development, World Health Organization, Department of Child and Adolescent Health and Development
World Health Organization. (2013). Adolescent Health and Development; available at http://www.searo.who.int/en/section 13/section 1245-4980htm; accessed on 12 April 2019
World Health Organization. (2017). Global Accelerated Action for the Health of Adolescents (AA – HA); Guidance on support Country implementation Geneva: WHO
World Health Organization. (2018). Adolescent Pregnancy: WHO factsheet 2018 https://www.who.int/en/news-room/fact-sheets/details/adolescent-pregnancy Accessed on November 4th, 2019
World Health Organization. (2018). Recommendations on Adolescent Sexual and Reproductive Rights Department of Reproductive Health and Research, WHO Geneva 27: Available at www.who.int/reproductivehealth.org
World Health Organization. (2021). Adolescent Health; at www.who.int>..>Adolescent health accessed on April 16th, 2021
World Health Organization. (WHO). (2013). Report on Global Sexually Transmitted Infection Surveillance; available at www.who.int
Yamane, T. (1967). Statistics: An Introductory Analysis 2nd Edition: New York Harper and Row
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
Categories
License
Copyright (c) 2025 This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, adaptation, and reproduction in any medium, provided that the original work is properly cited.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
Authors are permitted to post their work online in institutional/disciplinary repositories or on their own websites. Pre-print versions posted online should include a citation and link to the final published version in Journal of Librarianship and Scholarly Communication as soon as the issue is available; post-print versions (including the final publisher's PDF) should include a citation and link to the journal's website.
