CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
- BACKGROUND OF STUDY
Sexuality education also referred to as sex education or family life education is a lifelong process of acquiring information and forming attitudes, beliefs and values. It encompasses sexual development, reproductive health, interpersonal relationships, affection, intimacy, body image and gender roles. The concept of sex education attracts a plethora of definitions from different people. According to Frimpong (2010), sex education is “the systematic attempt to promote the healthy awareness in the individual on matters of his/her sexual development, functioning, behavior and attitudes through direct teaching”. Sexuality behaviour amongst young people in Nigeria and indeed Sub Saharan Africa is seriously going through transformation from what it was in the past. This transformation has been attributed to the effect of modernization caused by industrialization, education, exposure and importation of various foreign cultures that were alien to Nigeria and Africa. This has increased the vulnerability of young people to sexual and reproductive health problems. In recent times the Nigerian youth have been reported to be highly vulnerable to antisocial behaviours including unsafe sexual activities. This has been attributed to their great lack of information and knowledge about the implications of their behaviour on their sexual health. There is therefore the need for sexuality education amongst this vulnerable group. It develops young people’s skills so that they make informed choices about their behaviour, and feel confident and competent about acting on these choices.
Young people get information about sex and sexuality from a wide range of sources, including each other, their parents, and teachers, through the media, magazines, books and websites. Some of these sources give accurate information while others do not. Myths and misconceptions about sex and sexuality acquired by young people from wrong sources may be carried throughout life and passed on to their own offspring. It has however been documented that when young people are well informed, there is a delay in the age of onset of sexual activities and increased use of preventive measures against STDs and pregnancy amongst those already sexually active. This leads to an overall reduction in teenage Pregnancies and sexually transmitted diseases.
The concept of sex education in Nigerian schools is not a new concept in Nigeria. Adepoju (2005) and Abdu (2006) postulated that traditional form of sex education and family life education has been in existence where kinship systems, age grade and coming – of – age ceremonies or initiation ceremonies where the youths were tutored about manhood and womanhood. It was purely biological and cultural, while various methods of contraceptives were just kept at the domain of married people and kept secret. Many young people were kept in the dark as they were not opportuned to be properly educated on family life and sex education because their training was on “dos and don’ts”.
Traditionally, sex education was to be given to every child and adolescents by his/her immediate family but these practice has been eroded by the influence of modernization, western civilization, and collapsing family life; thereby leaving the young ones at the mercy of the wider society and other socializing agents who may not give accurate information that can assist the young ones in their transition to adulthood. This vacuum in the life of adolescents is what the school needed to fill through the teaching of sex education in social studies.
- STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
Young people get information about sex and sexuality from different sources. However these sources are not formally trained and do not organised program in sexuality education. This uncoordinated approach to learning often crates role conflict when there is congruence between individuals' perception of their sex role and the role prescription of society. In an attempt to catch up with the adults and society prescription therefore, they engage in sexuality complexities such as pre mature and marital sex, unwanted pregnancies, unsafe abortions and sexual transmissible diseases.
More so, adolescence is a stage when youths begin to learn so much about themselves and try to adjust to emerging changes in their anatomy. This stage corresponds with the fifth stage of Erik Erikson’s theory of personality development titled “Identity versus Role confusion”. During this period, the adolescent is expected to perform some developmental tasks (such as attaining matured relationships with peers, of the same and opposite sex, choosing a career and preparing for it and maintaining emotional maturity) and sometimes becomes confused about these expectations when he is unable to attain them. The physical changes manifested in the adolescent at this stage are accompanied with new sexual feelings for which they need some clarifications. Incidentally; parents who are expected to provide the necessary emotional support are unable to, because of their beliefs that discussing sexual issues with children may negate cultural practices in Nigeria specifically and Africa in general. Therefore, these youths resort to their peers and social media for such information which may sometimes be misleading and have grave consequences.
Because parents have a feel of indifference when discussing sexuality with their children as well as view it as a stench on morality, the children tend to grow with such mentality because of their background, therefore it affect their attitude towards the teaching of sexuality in secondary schools. Thus, the need to include sexuality education in the curriculum of secondary school cannot be overemphasized.
Nigeria today is witnessing, an alarming rate of increase in problems associated with adolescent sexual development among these problems are sexual perversions like homosexuality, lesbianism, rape, prostitution and sexual harassment. Incidences of unwanted pregnancies that call for induced abortion, high mortality rate among our girls, premature pregnancy resulting in Vesico Virginal Fistula (VVF) (Njoku, 2003). Sex education is not properly handled in most of the secondary schools in Edo, Delta and Ondo State in order to curb these perversion.
- AIMS AND OBJECTIVES
the main aim of the study is relationship between selected background characteristics and attitude of secondary school social studies students towards sexuality education in Nigeria, Edo, Delta and Ondo state. Other specific objectives include:
1.to determine the relationship between selected background characteristics and attitude of secondary school social studies students towards sexuality education in Nigeria, Edo, Delta and Ondo state.
2. to ascertain the perception of social studies students on sex education in Nigeria, Edo, Delta and Ondo state.
3. to investigate students opinion on the best person to discuss sex related issues with in Nigeria, Edo, Delta and Ondo state.
4. to examine the effect of background characteristics on the attitude of social studies students towards sexuality education in Nigeria, Edo, Delta and Ondo State.
5. to identify factors responsible for the attitude of social studies students towards sexuality education in Nigeria, Edo, Delta and Ondo State.
6. to identify the challenges towards sexuality education in Nigeria, Edo, Delta and Ondo State.
7. to proffer solution to the challenges towards sexuality education in Nigeria, Edo, Delta and Ondo State.
- RESEARCH QUESTION
1. What is the relationship between selected background characteristics and attitude of secondary school social studies students towards sexuality education in Nigeria, Edo, Delta and Ondo state?
2. What is the perception of social studies students on sex education in Nigeria, Edo, Delta and Ondo state?
3. What is students’ opinion on the best person to discuss sex related issues with in Nigeria, Edo, Delta and Ondo state?
4. What is the effect of background characteristics on the attitude of social studies students towards sexuality education in Nigeria, Edo, Delta and Ondo State?
5. What are the factors responsible for the attitude of social studies students towards sexuality education in Nigeria, Edo, Delta and Ondo State?
6. What are the challenges towards sexuality education in Nigeria, Edo, Delta and Ondo State?
7. What is the solution to the challenges towards sexuality education in Nigeria, Edo, Delta and Ondo State?
- STATEMENT OF RESEARCH HYPOTHESIS
1. H0: there is no significant relationship between selected background characteristics and attitude of secondary school social studies students towards sexuality education in Nigeria, Edo, Delta and Ondo state.
2. H1: there is a significant relationship between selected background characteristics and attitude of secondary school social studies students towards sexuality education in Nigeria, Edo, Delta and Ondo state.
- SIGNIFICANCE OF STUDY
This study is significant in that it intends to unravel the perception of students towards sex education in the area. Since the status of family life and sex education in the area as well as teachers perception about the content of family life and sex education has been researched into, this present study is therefore tailored towards ascertaining the relationship between selected background characteristics and attitude of secondary school social studies students towards sexuality education in Nigeria, Edo, Delta and Ondo state.
Adolescents are everywhere in our society, they need to be observed, studied, educated and guided to become responsible adults. They are the nation’s richest resources but moral laxity in our society today among adolescents may inhibit the society from tapping from these resources, and this can to an extent be blamed on their background characteristics and attitude, therefore there is an urgent call for parents and teachers to teach sex education because the knowledge of sex education will minimize the problems and improve interpersonal relationship between sexes. It will also improve state of womanhood, manhood and family life and would reduce the area of sexual impropriety.
The findings of this study will expose student’s option about sex education and will inform the curriculums designers to design a curriculum that can be viewed as appropriate by the beneficiaries/students.
The study will to a certain extent widen the teachers horizon in handling the problem associated with adolescent sexual problems and will also help teenagers know more about the physical changes and development that occurs during this period.
The study will also educate parents on the need for sexual education to their children making them understand that sexual education will do a lot of good than harm to their children and will go long way in curbing lots of sexual vices in the society and as well develop a positive background attitude towards sexuality education in social studies classes in secondary schools especially in Edo, Delta and Ondo State.
Finally, the study can be used as a reference point to researchers who intend to further investigate on the study.
- SCOPE OF STUDY
The study will cover the relationship between selected background characteristics and attitude of secondary school social studies students towards sexuality education in Nigeria, Edo, Delta and Ondo state.
- LIMITATION OF STUDY
1. Financial constraint- Insufficient fund tends to impede the efficiency of the researcher in sourcing for the relevant materials, literature or information and in the process of data collection (internet, questionnaire and interview).
2. Time constraint- The researcher will simultaneously engage in this study with other academic work. This consequently will cut down on the time devoted for the research work.
- DEFINITION OF TERMS
Relationship: the way in which two or more people or things are connected, or the state of being connected.
Selected: carefully chosen as being the best or most suitable.
Background: the part of a picture, scene, or design that forms a setting for the main figures or objects, or appears furthest from the viewer.
Between: at, into, or across the space separating (two objects or regions).
Characteristics: a feature or quality belonging typically to a person, place, or thing and serving to identify them.
Attitude: a settled way of thinking or feeling about something.
Sexuality education: Sex education is the instruction of issues relating to human sexuality, including emotional relations and responsibilities, human sexual anatomy, sexual activity, sexual reproduction, age of consent, reproductive health, reproductive rights, safe sex, birth control and sexual abstinence.
