Influence Of Parental Connectedness On Public Secondary School Students’ Sexual Behaviour In Ibadan North East Local Government Area, Oyo State

ABSTRACT

Parental Connectedness (PC), a social and emotional bond between parents and their children, influences the sexual behaviour of adolescents worldwide. In Nigeria, the effect of PC on the Sexual Behaviour (SB) of secondary school students has been little researched particularly in Ibadan North East Local Government Area (LGA), Oyo State, Nigeria. This study was conducted to determine the influence of PC on the SB of Public Secondary School (PSS) students in the LGA. The study was a cross-sectional survey which adopted a 3-stage sampling technique to select the wards, schools and 802 respondents from eight of the 64 PSS. Eight Focus Group Discussion (FGD) sessions, four each among male and female students, were conducted. Data on socio-demographic characteristics, PC and history of sexual intercourse were collected using a pre-tested semi-structured questionnaire. The PC was measured using a 304-point scale with four domains. The domains of PC were: Parental Control and Monitoring (PCM), Parental Supervision (PS), Parent-child Relationship/Parental Presence (PRPP) and Parent-Child Communication (PCC) with domain maximum scores of 90, 40, 90 and 84 respectively. Overall scores of ≤188 and >188 point were categorised as low and high PC respectively. Scores considered high connectedness for PCM, PS, PRPP and PCC were ≥54, ≥24, ≥54 and ≥56 respectively. Descriptive statistics and Chi-square test were used to analyse the quantitative data at p≤0.05, while FGD data were subjected to content analysis.