Sociodemographic factors that predispose adolescents to premarital sex in Gokana Local Government Area of Rivers State

Abstract

Adolescence is characterised by a surge in hormonal flow resulting in dramatic physiological and psychosocial changes with several developmental consequences. This study evaluated the sociodemographic factors that predispose adolescents to premarital sex in Gokana LGA of Rivers State. The study adopted a descriptive research design. A total of 421 adolescents participated in the study. A multistage sampling procedure was used to select the respondents from the study area. A structured and validated questionnaire with a reliability coefficient of 0.76 was administered to elicit information from respondents. The data collected were subjected to both descriptive and inferential statistical analysis. Mean and standard deviation were used to answer the research questions, whereas the independent sample t-test and one-way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) were used to test the hypotheses at a .05 level of significance. The findings revealed the mean age of the respondents was 14.32±2.86 years, and 62.2% of the respondent's parents had secondary education. Also, sociodemographic factors that predispose adolescents to premarital sex in Gokana LGA were age, parents' educational status, and parents' socioeconomic status. Gender was not a significant factor predisposing adolescents to premarital sex. It was recommended among others that parents should strengthen the parent-child relationship of their adolescents who due to their age and societal allusion are predisposed to premarital sex.