Knowledge, Attitude and Practice of Vulnerable Youth Towards Sexual and Reproductive Health (Report for the Community Survey on Vulnerable Youth in Calabar South, Cross River State)

Adolescence is a pivotal time in a child’s life and a gateway to adulthood. This stage of life presents a 

very critical point in life because the child is transiting into adulthood, decisions made at this stage 

certainly does affect the child in life. There are 1.2 billion adolescent in the world today and nine out 

of ten of these lives in Asia and Sub Saharan Africa. Despite increasing insights into the opportunities 

that education and literacy can offer to children especially girls including delaying their age of

marriage, improving their negotiation capacity and opportunities for employment, 71million children 

who are of school going age are not in school and a majority of these are girls. Educated girls 

according to UNICEF are more likely to marry later in life, to have healthier families, less likely to die 

of maternal related issues and they tend to have fewer children who are healthy compared to 

uneducated girls.

Adolescents are vulnerable to a number of life challenging situations like early initiation of sexual 

intercourse which exposes them to different reproductive health problems and this is why policy and 

programs should be concerned about the young people. Studies have revealed that a number of young 

people who had their first sexual debut at a very young age did not consent to it and this reveals how 

young people are exposed to abuse and violence which in most cases go un reported for fear of 

stigmatization and rejection. A number of circumstances which surround young people’s first sexual 

experience usually have immediate and longer term consequences on their sexual life. Studies have 

shown that adolescents need reproductive health information in order to aid them in making informed 

decisions. On the other hand many young people confide in their peers for advice many of whom are 

not informed, hence programs that provide information to these young people have greater impact on 

young people’s reproductive health