Book Description

This study describes the findings of a survey of adolescents' aged 12-19 in Ado-Ekiti. The survey examines the influence of the mass media - radio, television and the print on adolescent sexual behaviour. The underlying propositions are that modern and western ideas communicated via the mass media contribute to the weakening of traditional norms and values guiding Pre-marital sexual intercourse, and that parental attributes of adolescents may influence their sexual behaviour. Of the 400 adolescents interviewed, more than two thirds have had sexual intercourse, which is an indication of the high-level of sexual promiscuity among the population under consideration. Close to 7 out of every 10 adolescent students claimed to have had sexual intercourse and the modal age at first intercourse is 14.4 years. Further research indicates that the bulk of adolescents have had their first sexual experience are in the age group 12-15.Findings also revealed that more adolescents are exposed to the radio rather than to either television or print. Adolescents interviewed were more knowledgeable about condom than any other method of family planning. They equally cited the radio as their main source of getting information on family planning. This is closely followed by the Television. In comparative terms, there is low accessibility to family planning information on social media and the print media. Bivariate and Multivariate analysis reveals there is a positive correlation between adolescent age and sexual intercourse. In other words, as age increase, there is the tendency by the adolescent to want to experiment sex having gathered some information from the mass media. Bivariate analysis revealed that a positive relationship exists between mass media exposure and involvement in sexual activities. It was also discovered in the Multivariate analysis, that adolescents who listen to the radio everyday are 3.1 times more likely to have sex than those who hardly ever. The figure is nearly the same for adolescent that have access to internet. The figure for the television and the print media are 2.0 and 2.6 times respectively. The Parental attributes of the adolescents and their level of education also has a significant effect on their involvement in sex. This study found that adolescents with no education are the most likely to have had sexual intercourse than those with primary or secondary education. Similarly, adolescents from the low category of parental dwelling unit are the most likely to have had sex.