SOCIAL INSTIGATORS OF PREMARITAL SEXUAL ACTIVITIES AMONG SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS IN UYO LOCAL EDUCATION COMMITTEE
This study investigated social instigators of premarital sexual activities among secondary school students in Uyo Local Education Committee. Three research questions were raised and three hypotheses formulated and tested at .05 level of significance. A correlational research design was adopted while the population of the study comprised 6,618 senior secondary Two (SS2) students in the fifteen (15) public secondary schools in Uyo Local Government Area of Akwa Ibom State. A sample size of 378 Senior Secondary Two (SS2) students was selected for the study using Taro Yamane sampling formulae. To get adequate sampled schools, random sampling method was used to select 9 public secondary schools out of 15. Thereafter, 42 students were selected from each of the sampled schools using hat and draw method of random sampling, which gives a total of 378 sampled respondents. The researchers structured questionnaire titled Social Instigators and Premarital Sexual Activities among Students Questionnaire (SIPSASQ) was used for data collection. Data collected from the field was analyzed using Pearson Product Moment Correlation (PPMC) statistics and the study finding revealed a very high positive and significant relationship between peer group influence, sexting and premarital sexual activities among secondary school students in the study area. Conclusion was drawn from the findings while the researcher recommended among other things that, school administrators and counsellors, parents as well as the teachers should wake up to their responsibilities of monitoring and advising students on the kind of associations they should keep, so as to reduce peer influences towards premarital sex.
Keywords: Socio-personal Instigators, Premarital Sex, Peer Group Influence, Sexting
