COURSE
CODE: PSY
733
COURSE
TITLE: RESEARCH METHODS IN PSYCHOLOGY
ABSTRACT
The study
evaluated the factors that influence adolescents to engaging in sexual activity
and level of involvement in sexual activity among adolescents in Ibadan. Using
both qualitative and quantitative methods of research the participants were
thirty-seven. Seven of them (4 males and 3 females) constituted the focus group
discussion while the other thirty filled the questionnaire. The questionnaire
was developed mostly from the outcome of the qualitative study. Factors like youth
culture, electronic and print media and peer pressure. Testing for the first
hypothesis using t-test for independent measures, being a male (mean=17.50) came
out significant at .001 (less than 1% error variance) level of significance. In
the second hypothesis, age (mean= .343) seem to be an influencing factor
significant at the significance level of .05 (less than 5% error variance). Parents
should not make sex a big deal and they should talk about sex talks with their
adolescents, explaining the risk involved. Parenting program and sex
educational be organized to train parents and adolescents respectively how to
cope with adolescent stage.
INTRODUCTION
Knowing why adolescents are involved in sex is
critical to understanding their sexual behavior. For example, having sex for
enhancement (pleasure) motives has been linked to sexual behaviors that
increase the risk of sexually transmitted infections (STIs) or pregnancy or
both. Having sex for intimacy reasons, however, also has been associated with
more frequent sex (Dawson, LH; Shih, MC; de moor, C; Shrier, L, 2008).
Many
people imagine an adolescent as being a gangly, awkward, and troublesome
individual. Researchers shared this view until quite recently. This period of
life (generally considered to run from age ten to age twenty-five) was seen as
a time of "storm and stress." But what is adolescent development
really like? Clearly it is a time of great change on many levels. Probably most
dramatic are the biological changes associated with puberty. These changes
include dramatic shifts in the shape of the body, increases in hormones, and
changes in brain architecture. These biological shifts are directly linked to
changes in sexual interest, cognitive capacities, and physical capacities.
There are also major social changes associated with the school-linked
transitions and with changes in the roles adolescents are expected to play by all
those around them.
In humans, mature sexual desire usually begins to
appear with the onset of puberty. Sexual expressions can take the form of masturbation
or sex with a partner. Sexual interests among adolescents, adults, can vary
greatly. Sexual activity in general is associated with a number of risks,
including sexually transmitted diseases (including HIV/AIDS) and unwanted
pregnancy. This is considered particularly true for young adolescents, as
adolescents' brains are not neurally mature (several brain regions in the
frontal lobe of the cerebral cortex and in the hypothalamus important for self
control, delayed gratification, and risk analysis and appreciation are not
fully mature until ages 25-30). Partially because of this, most adolescents are
deemed less emotionally mature and are not financially
self-sufficient.
Since the
onset of sexuality is at puberty which is apparent at the adolescent stage then
it is obvious they will feel sexual urges. In Nigeria sex is believed to be for
married people that are adults. Adolescents know this too but they have their
sexuality triggered by some factors available in the society, it could be
accidental or intentional. For example TV watching, an adolescent could stomp
on a movie and not know a sex scene is in it, at the same time an adolescent
will buy and watch a porno film.
PURPOSE OF THE STUDY
The purpose of carrying out this study is;
·
To know the prevalence of sexual involvement of
Nigerian adolescents.
·
To know the factors that influences them to
involving themselves in sexual activities.
·
To tests for variables they claim to influence
them to involvement in sexual activities.
·
To know the perspective(s) to address the
situation.
OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY
The objective of this study is to address some of
the limitations of previous research by identifying the Nigerian adolescent’s
reason for involvement in sexual activity and prevalence since most of
adolescent sexuality researches are done abroad which may not be totally true
of Nigerian adolescents.
To know the level of involvement of Nigerian
adolescents in sexual activities.
To bring to the notice of adolescents and parents
on what could possibly trigger the sexuality of the adolescents and how to help
them cope.
To make qualitative recommendation and
intervention program to reduce teenage sexuality and risks involved in it.
LIMITATION OF THE STUDY
·
Used very few participants
·
The research suffered short time frame
·
The researcher focused on Ibadan alone when
adolescents can be found in other parts of Nigeria for broader outcome
REVIEW OF RELATED STUDIES
Many studies have been carried out on reasons why
adolescents involve themselves in sex. Previous studies' participants ranged from
high school students (Stone & Ingham, 2002), to adolescents presenting to a
medical clinic for STI treatment (Dawson et al., 2008), to college
undergraduates who currently were dating someone (Dawson et al., 2008). Reasons
for having sex were assessed by asking how important each listed reason was in
the respondents' sexual relations (Dawson et al., 2008), how often they
personally had sex for each of a list of reasons (Dawson et al., 2008).
The studies have indicated that at least four
factors may contribute to differences in why adolescents have sex. They are
age, gender, relationship status in quest for intimacy and motivational level
of risk behavior that individuals are motivated to engage in the behavior to
enhance positive affect or reduce negative affect (Dawson et al., 2008). These
gender differences, however, have not been consistently observed (Dawson et
al., 2008). Age has been associated with
different reasons for having sex. Consistent with the need to establish
intimate relationships as part of healthy adolescent development (Dawson et
al., 2008) Similarly, a longitudinal
study of female adolescent clinic patients found that girls who were 17 or
older at first coitus were more likely than younger girls to report being in
love and feeling romantic as reasons for sex (Dawson et al., 2008).
In another research titled ‘watching sex on
television predicts adolescent initiation of sexual behavior’ (Collins, Elliot,
Berry, Kanouse, Kunkel, Hunter & Miu, 2004). A national longitudinal survey
of 1792 adolescents was carried out within 12-17 years of age. Participants
reported their TV viewing habits and sexual experience and responded to measures
of more than a dozen factors known to be associated with adolescent sexual
initiation. Analysis indicated that adolescents who viewed more sexual content
at baseline were more likely to initiate intercourse and progress to more
advanced non-coital sexual activities during the subsequent year, controlling
for respondent characteristics that might otherwise explain these
relationships. Watching sex on TV predicts and may hasten adolescent sexual
initiation. Collins et el came up with the recommendation that reducing the
amount of sexual content in entertainment programming, reducing adolescent
exposure to this content, or increasing references to and depictions of
possible negative consequences of sexual activity could appreciably delay the
initiation of coital and non-coital activities. Alternatively, parents may be
able to reduce the effects of sexual content by watching TV with their adolescents
and discussing their own beliefs about sex.
To better appreciate the topic ‘factors
influencing sexual involvement and sexual involvement among adolescents’,
theories will be used to explain and elaborate.
THEORIES OF ADOLESCENT SEXUALITY
So many theories in developmental psychology
explain the developmental stage of an adolescent. According to Erik Erikson (1968)
in his socio-psychological development he stated that “adolescence is the stage
from 10- 20 years of age”. It is the stage when the individual is in search of
identity, if the search is not achieved then there is identity confusion. The
individual is faced with the finding out who they are, what they are about and
where they are going in life adolescents are confronted with many new roles and
adult statuses such as vocational and romantic. It is a stage of stress and
storm. This is the stage individuals
find it difficult to trust people especially adults and most especially their
parents, they never seem to do anything right in the sight of their parents
which piss them off. The adolescents acknowledged that they can be very
stubborn because they feel they are right about some things they do and know
what they are doing. There is physiological, cognitive and biological growth.
It is the stage of puberty when so many sexual characteristics begin to grow.
For the girls there is onset of menstruation, breast enlargement, hips and body
curves growth. As for the boys there is strength in the voice, the penis
enlarges, broader chests amongst others. Most of the behaviors adolescents
portray are as a result of their thought processes.
Jean Piaget’s theory of cognitive development places
adolescents in the fourth stage which is the formal operational stage. At this
stage according to Piaget it is a stage of abstract, idealistic and logical
reasoning. It is the stage of hypothetical reasoning which is the adolescent’s
ability to develop hypotheses, or best hunches, about ways to solve problems.
They then systematically deduce, or conclude which is the best path to follow
to solve the problem. Adolescents at this stage are of the believe that they
are smart and are capable of take decisions on their own which includes
decision about keeping relationship with the opposite sex, their sexuality and
relations with the larger society. Adolescent sexuality is a concern to
researchers that is why Crooks and Bauer took time to explain the phenomenon.
The adolescent sexuality theory according to
Crooks, Bauer (1999) states that, “cognitive world plays an important role in
our sexuality”. Thoughts and images are extensively involved in adolescents and
adult sexual lives. Adolescents might be attracted to someone but understands
that it is important to inhibit sexual urge until adulthood, what they think of
it, what they have seen of sex and what they have heard of sex will either make
them inhibit or go for sex. Cognitive interpretation of sex also involves whom
they want to have sex with or whom they are having sex with. Tracing back to the psychosexual stages of
Sigmund Freud, he stated that ‘every individual from childhood have sexual
feelings’. The society expects such sexuality be expressed at the adulthood
stage.
OPERATIONAL DEFINITION OF TERMS
Adolescents, for this study they are the teenage
age from 13 - 19 years of age.
Sexual involvement is the practice of
·
Teenage relationship; adolescents’ involvement
in love relationship with the opposite sex
·
Masturbation; adolescents’ self relief of sexual
urge.
·
Romance; inclusion of kissing and smooching
·
Coitus sex; sexual relations with the opposite
sex.
·
Non-coitus sex; specifically oral sex with same
or opposite sex.
Factors influencing sexual involvement;
·
Print
media (romance novels, sex magazines).
·
Electronic media (sex inclined television
program, internet).
·
Youth culture; music (songs with sexual lyrics),
dancing (in parties).
·
Peer group.
METHODOLOGY
The research was carried out using snowballing
sampling technique and simple randomization sampling technique thereby given
all the adolescents equal right to participate. Both qualitative and
quantitative methods of data collection were used. The researcher carried out a
focus group discussion as the qualitative method before constructing the
questionnaire which was the quantitative method. The snowballing technique was
used for the qualitative study while the simple randomization was used for the
quantitative study respectively.
The
participants
The participants were secondary school
adolescents from both private and public schools in Ibadan. Their ages ranges
from 13 – 19 years, 37 participants were used. Four males and three females
made up the focus group discussant while the remaining 30 filled the
questionnaire. Out of the 30 respondents that filled the questionnaire 20 of
them are females while 10 of them are males.
Setting
The focus group setting was carried out among seven
adolescents from different schools living in Ibadan. The group comprises of
four males and three females. It was carried out in a home setting to make the
adolescents more relaxed. As for the
quantitative study the questionnaires were taken to the school setting in their
various schools.
Procedure
The qualitative study was carried out before the
quantitative study. At the focus group level the participants were asked to
introduce themselves not necessarily telling their real name but their actual
age was told to the researcher. Each of them was asked questions from the
discussion guide. The discussion guide comprises initially of seven questions,
as the discussion went on two questions were added to the initial questions.
HYPOTHESIS
The following hypothesis will be tested
·
‘Being a male will influence adolescent’s involvement
in sexual activity than being a female’
(T-test for independent
measures)
·
‘Age will have a positive relationship with
adolescent’s involvement in sexual activity than factors like youth culture,
electronic media, print media and peer pressure.
(Regression analysis)
RESULT
Hypothesis
one
Table 1: Independent
group t-test table distribution of influence of gender on adolescent’s sexual
involvement
|
|
gender
|
N
|
Mean
|
SD
|
df
|
T
|
Sig
|
|
Sexual involvement
|
Male
|
10
|
17.50
|
4.97
|
28
|
3.761
|
.001
|
|
female
|
20
|
11.20
|
3.98
|
With a
total number of 30 participants the mean distribution of males against females
is 6.30. The t- score of 3.761 is significant at the level less than .001 error
variance that is, the probability of an error occurring is less than 1%. From the table since the males have the higher
mean score (17.50) implies that being male is a factor that influence
adolescents involvement in sexual activity. Being a female (mean=11.20) has no
influence on adolescent sexual involvement.
Hypothesis
two
Table 2: Regression
analysis of relationship between youth culture, electronic media, print media,
peer pressure, gender and age on adolescent involvement in sexual activity
|
|
Beta
|
Sig.
|
R
|
R2
|
F
|
Sig
|
|
(Constant)
|
|
|
.773a
|
.598
|
5.703
|
.001a
|
|
Youth culture
|
-.234
|
>.05
|
||||
|
Electronic media
|
.172
|
>.05
|
||||
|
Print media
|
.273
|
>.05
|
||||
|
Peer pressure
|
-.538
|
>.05
|
||||
|
age
|
.375
|
<.01
|
||||
|
Gender
|
-.343
|
<.05
|
Table 2 shows the regression coefficient (R square
=.598) and an F- ratio (5.703) significant at less than 1% error variance. The
factors youth culture (.234), electronic media (.172), print media (.273) and
peer pressure (.538) was significant at the level greater than .05 error
variance that is, the probability of error variance is greater than 5% which is
not acceptable in psychology. Age (.375) and gender (.343) seems to be
significant at level less than .05 that is, probability of error is less than
5%. Significance at this level is acceptable. This implies that age and gender
influences adolescents involvement in sexual activity.
DISCUSSION
The exposure level of the Nigerian adolescents to
sex is surprising and alarming. At the group discussion level the participants
were asked to give a percentage rating of prevalence of sex among adolescents,
the percentage they gave was outrageous but trying to hold a point that really
adolescents are very much sexually active. They gave percentage average of 72%
meaning 72 adolescents out of a 100 are sexually active.
According to the adolescents the reasons why they
involve themselves in sexual activities are;
·
To please their boyfriends
·
To go against parent’s will
·
Because they see others doing it
·
Because they see their parents do it and it
raises their curiosity
·
For the fun of it
·
Through television viewing of sex inclined films
and programs
·
Peer pressure
·
Hormonal problem
·
Separated parents
The participants listed the various type of sex adolescents
engage in, they mentioned
·
Oral sex
·
Anal sex
·
Masturbation
·
Homosexuality and lesbianism
·
Romance, kissing
·
Sex with the opposite gender
Some of the factors listed out by the focus group
participants made up the larger part of the items in the questionnaire.
The first hypothesis proves that being a male as
a direct influence of sexual involvement among adolescents. According to other
studies carried out male gender is seen to be more vulnerable to social
facilitation. They are believed to have higher sexual libido than females (Ge,
Conger, and Elder, 2001; Strauch, B. 2003). Males at the adolescent stage
begins to have sense of dependence higher than that of a female, they feel they
are grown and want to do things the way they feel is best even if goes against
some social rules. Male adolescents finds it easy to branch at a porno shop to
buy a porno film, he can decide to read whatever he wants anytime. These and so
many male characteristics factor that are not listed here must have implication
involvement in sexual activity. Males engage in keeping girl-friends,
masturbating, asking for romance and sex from their girl- friends. Thus, most
of Nigerian adolescents show aversion for homosexuality and anal sex but some
do engage to in oral sex.
The second hypothesis analysis shows that age as
an influence on adolescent sexuality. The age category is between 15- 19 years.
Adolescents within this category are close to early adulthood, their cognition
is becoming more hypothetic, adolescents are beginning to find answers to their
identity confusion questions. For both male and female age is significant. At a
point in time they begin to be more free and vocal with friends, new and
strange feelings become more noticable, curiosity increases. Some adolescents
at this stage learn to handle their emotions while other are exploratory.
RECOMMENDATION
There are so many sex-related topics adolescents
want to talk about but they don’t know if they can trust their parents not to
scold them or have their adult friends keep it a secret, parents should not
make a big deal about sex. They should be able to talk about it from an early
age of seven. One of the focus group discussant said her mother talked to her
about it when she was ten and the point she felt ‘why are you telling me, am
not having sex’.
More attention should be given to boys at teenage
age because they are more vulnerable to indiscriminate sex. Middle adolescent
stage should be monitored carefully for both male and female adolescents.
Parents should not criticize their children when
watching films that could co-incidentally have sex scenes rather they watch it
with the adolescent and explain further what is not clear through it they
should be educated on when to have sex.
There are so many cues out there encouraging our
adolescents to want and eventually have sex. These cues are musical lyrics,
romance novel, sex magazines amongst others. Knowledge of these cues are
majorly influenced by peers. They introduce themselves to this factors causing
adolescent involvement in sexual activity. Parents cannot follow their
adolescents to school but they can keep a very close and intimate relationship
with their adolescents so that whenever such things are seen or told about by
their friends they find it easy to come home and tell. By this, influence risk
will be minimized and proper education and caution will be given to the
teenager.
Parenting skills and style of training adolescent
should be learnt because how they were handled will have to change in order to
get the best out of them.
More sex education and unprotected sex risks
should be discussed with the adolescents by psychologists, doctors and the
school teacher. The doctors are important so as to explain vividly the
physiological implication of the diseases.
CONCLUSION
It may not be surprising to know that Nigerian
adolescents are this exposed to so much of sexuality, but necessary education
and clear analysis of what sex is, who, how and when it should be performed.
The Yoruba belief is that sex is for only the married and that staying a virgin
till the wedding night is respectable, valuable and modellabe to other members
of the society.
RESEARCH SCALES
The qualitative
questions asked are;
Who is an
Adolescent?
Do adolescents engage in sex activity?
What is sex?
Mention the types of sex you know?
With whom do the
adolescents have sex?
Why do they have
sex?
How often do
they engage in sexual activity?
What are the
factors that influence adolescents to having sex and narrate and incidence you
know of?
REFERENCES
Centers
for Disease Control (2005). Youth Risk Behavior Survey.
Collins.,
Elliot, Berry, Kanouse, Kunkel, Hunter & Miu, (2004) Parent-Child
Relationships in the Transition to
Adolescence: Continuity and Change in Interaction, Affect, and Cognition."
In Raymond Montemayor, Gerald Adams, and Thomas Gullotta eds., From Childhood
to Adolescence: A Transitional Period? Beverly Hills, CA: Sage, 1990.
Crooks,
R., Bauer, K (1999) our sexuality (7ty edition). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth
Dawson,
LH; Shih, MC; de moor, C; Shrier, L (2008) Reasons why adolescents and young
adults have sex: association with psychological characteristics and sexual
behavior. United States
Erik
Erikson (1968). Identity : youth and crisis. New York: W.W. Norton
Ge, X.,
Conger, R., and Elder, G. 2001. Pubertal transition, stressful life events, and
the emergence of gender differences in adolescent depressive symptoms. Developmental
Psychology, 37(3), 404-417.
Jean
Piaget (1952). ‘Origin of intelligence in children’. New York: oxford
university press.
Santrock,
J.W (2001) psychology; New York. Mc Graw Hill,
Strauch,
B. 2003. The Primal Teen. New York: Doubleday