Effects of Social Skills Training on Unprotected and Premarital Risk-Taking Sexual Behaviour among In-School Female Adolescents in Owerri Municipal Education Zone, Imo State, Nigeria

Cynthia Chimairo Ezeogu; Augustina A Anakwe; Beatrice Ahmadu Bahago

Cynthia Chimairo Ezeogu Department of Educational Foundations, University of Jos, Jos, Nigeria
Augustina A Anakwe Department of Educational Foundations, University of Jos, Jos, Nigeria
Beatrice Ahmadu Bahago Department of Educational Foundations, University of Jos, Jos, Nigeria

Keywords: Social Skills Training, Sexual Risk-taking Behaviours, Unprotected Sex, Premarital Sex

Abstract

This study examined the effects of Social Skills Training on unprotected and premarital sexual risk-taking behaviour of in-school female adolescents in Owerri Municipal Education Zone, Imo State, Nigeria. The study specifically determined the significant mean differences between the in-school female adolescents assigned to the experimental and control groups on risk-taking behaviour posttest mean scores. The study adopted true experimental design, specifically, pretest-posttest experimental control research design. The population was made up of 52 in-school Senior School Two female adolescents (SS2) identified with high sexual risk-taking behaviours in a public secondary school in Owerri Municipal Area. Purposive and simple random sampling techniques were used to sample 46 in-school female adolescents (experimental group = 23 and control group = 23). The students signed the consent forms and participated in the study with the consent of the parents and the school authority. Sexual Risk- Taking Behaviour Screening Questionnaire (SRTBSQ, r= 0.83) and Female Students’ Sexual Risk-taking Behaviour Questionnaire (FSSRBQ, α = 0.72) were used for data collection. Both content and construct validity were established for the instrument. The participants in both groups were pre-tested and post-tested. The experimental group received Social Skills Training for eight weeks in sixteen sessions, whereas the control group received normal lesson in English Language for eight weeks also. Descriptive statistics (mean and standard deviation), were used for answering the research questions, while t-test for independent sample was used for testing the hypotheses. The results indicated that the in-school adolescents in both the experimental and control groups had high level of premarital sex and unprotected sexual behaviours at baseline. There was a significant difference between the experimental and control groups on posttest mean scores of premarital sex and unprotected sexual behaviours (p < 0.05). The study concluded that Social Skills Training significantly reduced premarital and unprotected sexual risk-taking behaviours. The implications of the findings were highlighted for both theory and practical application.

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