Abstract

This study examined sexual behaviours that are common among adolescents despite the fact that they go through some forms of sexual socialization as they grow in their communities and as they enter school. Data were obtained from adolescents in five local government areas of Western Senatorial District of Kogi State, Nigeria. In all, 781 respondents were simple randomly selected from ten communities where ten government secondary co-educational schools were used. Of this sample of 781 respondents, 768 were returned and used for the analysis. Due to the differences in the population of the school depending on the remoteness of the community, the Barlett, Kotrlik and Higgins’ Table Determining Minimum Returned Sample Size for a given population using the margin error 0.05 was used. Variables were cross-tabulated to calculate the Chi-Square using the t-test at 0.05 level of significance. The Focus Group Discussion (FGD) and in depth Interview techniques were employed to corroborate the quantitative technique. This implies that both quantitative and qualitative methods were used. Findings from the research work revealed the ineffectiveness of both the school and communities as agents of adolescents’ sexual socialization. Recommendations were made towards an improvement in sexual socialization through a refocusing on the agents of socialization for positive effect.

Key words:  Socialization, adolescents, school curriculum, community, media, internet.