Abstract

This study examined prevalence of premarital sexual activities among the youth in a selected private University in Nigeria. A sample of 300 students comprised of 176 males and 124 females were randomly selected to participate in the study. The mean age and standard deviation was 21.7 ± 6.3 years. The ex-post-facto research design was employed. A 35 item; youth premarital sexual activities (YPSA) developed by the researchers was used to generate data for the study. All the hypotheses data were tested at 0.05 level of significance. Data was analyzed with the use of Independent t-test and Multiple Regression and Analysis of Variance. The results indicated that there is a significant difference between the sex, age and family background and premarital sexual activities, as F (_3,296) = 3.303; P< 0.05. Also, family background contributed most to premarital activities (β=0.439; t=4.174; P<0.05), followed by age grouping as β = 216; t = 2.142 (P< .05) and finally by gender, (β = .083; t = .825; P >0 .05). Lastly, there is no significant difference between the age grouping and premarital sexual activities. It is seen that β = 0.319; df = 298 (P> 0.05). On the basis of finding, it was concluded that gender and family background play a vital role in engagement of premarital sexual activities by young people, whereas age that suppose to have impact on the dependent variable proved wrong the intention of the researchers.

Key words: Gender, age, family background and premarital sexual activities.