Date rape experience and help-seeking behaviour among female senior secondary schools students in Abua-Odua Local Government Area of Rivers State

Abstract

Date rape, despite evidence indicating its prevalence, is not fully recognized in Africa, including Nigeria. This study evaluated the date rape experience and help-seeking behaviour among female senior secondary school students in Abua-Odua Local Government Area of Rivers State. The descriptive survey design was adopted. A sample of 198 respondents was drawn from a population of 1955 students in public secondary schools in the study area. A self-structured questionnaire was used to elicit information from the respondents and data was analysed using SPSS version 26. The study revealed that the majority (91.7%) of the students have had sexual encounters; and among these, the majority (91.8%) had experienced date rape from a boy/man friend. Forced vaginal sex (73.7%) was the highest form of date rape experienced. The majority (43.6%) of the assaults took place in the respondent's house after serious threats (55.4%) and many of the victims (53.5%) declined to get medical care. There was a significant difference in the incidence of date rape experience (F= 5.913, p= 0.017), forms of date rape (F= 3.288, p= 0.041), context of date rape occurrences F= 12.858, p= 0.000), and helping-seeking behaviour after date rape experience (F= 3.411, p= 0.021) among respondents by class. Relevant authorities should use extant laws of the land to punish perpetrators to deter the would-be perpetrators.