Determinants of Premarital Sex among In-School Adolescents in Ibadan South West Local Government Area of Oyo State, Nigeria

Abstract

Globally, the persistent occurrence of premarital sex among adolescents has become a public
health problem. As such, the phenomenon has constituted burdens to various countries,
particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. In order to solve the problems that are associated with
premarital sex, empirical studies focused more on both in and out of school adolescents; with
little concentration on adolescents from single sex schools. This study therefore, examined
Determinants of Premarital Sex among In-School Adolescents in Ibadan South-West Local
Government Area of Oyo State, Nigeria. The study adopted descriptive survey design. The
respondents were selected from two single sex schools in Ibadan South-West Local Government
Area of Oyo State. Purposive and simple random sampling techniques were adopted in
selecting 100 students from each of the schools; with a total of 200 students. The sampled
respondents were 100 males and 100 females. Determinants of Premarital Sex (r=0.73)
and Premarital Sex (r=0.72) scales were used for data collection. Four hypotheses were
tested at 0.05 alpha level. Data were analysed using percentages and frequency counts as
well as inferential statistics of linear regression and t-test. The findings of the study revealed
that, there was a significant contribution of each of the tested independent variables to
premarital sex. Parenting style (â=0.57), peer influence (â=0.62) and parental economic
status (â=0.61) independently and significantly determined premarital sex; while there was
a significant difference in pre-marital sex between male and female in-school adolescents
(t=2.871, df=198, p=0.005). It was concluded in this study that, parenting style, peer influence and parental economic status independently determined premarital sex among inschool adolescents in Ibadan South-West Local Government Area of Oyo State, Nigeria. It
was recommended among others that, adolescents should be enlightened periodically on the
health implications of premarital sex.