Perception of Adolescents on Unprotected Sex among Public Secondary School Students in Owo Local Government Area of Ondo State, Nigeria

Adebimpe OO, Omoniyi OA, Enuku CA, Bisiriyu MB, Agogo RU, Bisiriyu AH, Iyevhobu KO and Obohwemu OK

Published on: 2025-10-10

Abstract

Introduction: This study explored the Perception of Adolescents on Unprotected Sex among Public Secondary School students in Owo Local Government Area, Ondo State, Nigeria. This study was a cross-sectional survey; multi-stage sampling technique was used to randomly select the participating schools and the respondents, data were collected with pre-tested, semi-structured questionnaire which were self-administered.

Methods: A cross-sectional survey among adolescent students using a quantitative approach was conducted in public secondary schools in Owo local government area of Ondo State. This design was adopted for the following reasons: convenience, economical and more manageable for the researcher because a huge volume of data can be collected at one point and the results are more readily available. A total of 393 questionnaires was administered, collected, re-checked and analysed using IBM SPSS version 24.0. Students in Senior Secondary School 2-3 within the age range of fourteen to sixteen years (boys and girls) who registered for the current academic session in the public secondary schools in Owo local government area formed the study population.

Result: The respondents were mainly in Senior Secondary School, S.S.S 2 (52.4%) and S.S.S. 3 (47.6%) with age range of 14-16years. The distribution of knowledge of sex education of respondents revealed that 46.1% had good knowledge, 26.2% had fair knowledge while 27.7% had poor knowledge. The respondents had a positive perception towards sex education with a mean and standard deviation of 2.66±1.04 at a decision rule of ≥2.50. Respondents agreed that all factors listed in the questionnaire influenced them to have unprotected sex in a varying extent.

Conclusions: The results showed that adolescent students in Owo local government area are mostly influenced to engage in unprotected sex to a very large extent for pleasure, followed by influence of what they read/watch on social media, watching pornography, attending night club, substance use e.g. alcohol, peer pressure, force/coercion, financial/material gain, parental refusal to educate their children on sex education and poverty. Sex education is a tool for empowering adolescents to abstain from sex and also empower sexually active adolescents to negotiate and practise safer sex. However, sex education may not yield good results unless adolescents have a positive perception towards it. Positive awareness on sex education should be promoted at home, school and on the mass media.