INTEGRATIVE PSYCHOTHERAPY AND PEER EDUCATION TRAINING ON RISKYISEXUALIBEHAVIOURIOF IN-SCHOOLIADOLESCENTS IN LAGOSISTATE

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.