Abstract:
Risky sexual behaviour among adolescents is one of the global challenges because of
its dire consequences on the adolescents, family and the society. It could lead to
unwanted pregnancy, abortion, school dropout, untimely death, as well as
disappointment for parents, who strive daily to ensure these adolescents become
useful in future. Even though efforts have been made by various stakeholders and
scholars continuous and sporadic reported cases of unwanted pregnancy involving
adolescents is an evidence of geometric increase in risky sexual behaviour. Previous
efforts had been concentrated on identification of factors leading to risky sexual
behaviour with scanty attempts at formulating strategies for curbing the menace of
risky sexual behaviour of in-school adolescents. The objective of the present study
therefore, was to investigate the effectiveness of Integrative Psychotherapy (IP) and
Peer Education Training (PET) on risky sexual behaviour of in-school adolescents in
Lagos State. The moderating effects of self-esteem and parental socio-economic
status were also equally examined.
Anchored on Problem Behaviour Theory (PBT), the study adopted pretest-posttest
control group quasi-experimental design with 3x3x3 factorial matrix. Multi-stage
sampling technique was used to select ninety six students from three secondary
schools in Lagos State. The students were screened using Sexual Decision Making
Scale (SDMS) and randomly assigned to IP (31), PET (34) and control (31) groups.
The participants in the two treatment groups were exposed to eight weeks of
integrative psychotherapy and peer education training respectively. Risky Sexual
Behaviour (α = 0.84), Parental Socio-Economic Status (α = 0.89), and Self-Esteem (α
= 0.78) Scales were used for data collection. Seven hypotheses were tested at 0.05
level of significance. Analysis of Covariance (ANCOVA) was used as tool of
analysis.
There was a significant main effect of the treatment on risky sexual behaviour of inschool adolescents (F2, 75 = 15.275, p < 0.05, η2 = 0.289). Participants in the IP (Mean
= 21.2258) improved better than those in the PET (Mean = 22.7353). Self-esteem and
socio-economic status had no significant main effect on risky sexual behaviour. There
were two-way significant interaction effects of treatment and self-esteem, as well as
treatment and socio-economic status on risky sexual behaviour of the participants (F2,
75 = 0.565, p > 0.05, η2 = 0.015). However, there was no significant interaction effect
of self-esteem and socio-economic status on risky sexual behaviour. Also, there was
no significant three-way interaction effect of treatment, self-esteem and socioeconomic status on risky sexual behaviour of the participants.
Integrative psychotherapy and peer education training were effective in reducing
risky sexual behaviour of in-school adolescents in Lagos State. Counselling and
Educational Psychologists should make use of integrative psychotherapy and peer
education training as veritable strategies for reducing risky sexual behaviour of inschool adolescents.
