CHAPTER ONE

1. 1.0Background to the Study
2. 1.1Introduction

Being a teenager gives a child a lot of responsibilities to handle whether boy or girl, for the child no longer depend solely on the father or mother for most decisions taking, including those that are related to sex. Nigeria like people in other countries, derive their code of sexual morality from their various homes, existing traditions and the dominant religion of their places of origin.

According to Douglas Anede, Sunday Vanguard, January 20, 2008 page 19, “in agricultural society of old, most of the things an individual; did is known to his or her neighbours, hence the individual has strong motive for conformity to the society conventions, including correct sexual conduct.” He further stated that, as of today, fewer people lives in isolation and people are more educated and pre-occupied with the hustle and hustle of life to have time to check who is sleeping with who, thus, the birth of sexual promiscuity in the society.

Before the 60s, it was considered a taboo for an unmarried teenage girl to be seen alone in company of brothers or cousin. Then marriages were arranged by parents and a girl must remain a virgin before marriage. Any boy or man who has canal knowledge of a girl outside marriage would be forced to marry the girl and pay her bride price. Adeyinka (2005).

In the early 70s sexual promiscuity started to gain ground as a result of western education which weakened the hold which traditional sexual taboo used to have on people, and virginity before marriage was thrown to the wind. Ademola (2002).

Douglas Besharov, a resident scholar at the American enterprise institute, sates that, more teenagers are becoming sexually active than in the past years and are more likely to use contraceptives than their earlier counterparts. He further reports that by 1988, 70% of teenage females have had sex at least once compared to 40% in 1970s.

From 1990 to date, the rate of sexual promiscuity among teenagers is on a steady increase and it has grown to an extent of alarming rate in the sense that even children between the ages of 10-12 are no longer left out.

A counsellor, Ingrid Trobisch (1983) in one of her books, wrote that during one of her counselling session, she met a thirteen year old girl who said, I quote “by age eleven, I was already being pursued by young men and in fact, I have slept with some of them”, the counsellor expressed her shock at the pride with which she said it. What is beyond the understanding of this research is that, despite the constant campaigns on radio, televisions, schools, postal etc about the dangers of sexually transmitted diseases (STD) especially the dreaded killer HIV/AIDS, the more the rate of sexual promiscuity among teenagers which has motivated the research. “causes of sexual promiscuity among teenagers”.

1.2  Statement of Problem

The study is undertaken as a result of the fact that even as government and non governmental agencies are working hard to curb the dreaded HIV/AIDS diseases, we still hear of increase in the number of those infected daily including new born babies who contacted it from their parents. According to the 2006 sero sentinel survey by the federal ministry of health, it estimated that over 4 million Nigerians are infected, with death rate put at 3 million, as published in the vanguard allure, September 9th, 2007 page 11.

It is expected that with all these information, teenagers would be discouraged from pre-marital sex, rather, the reverse is the case. Therefore, the question is “what are the causes of sexual promiscuity among teenagers?”

1.3  Research Questions

1. What are the causes of sexual promiscuity among teenagers?
2. What do boys perceive to be causes of sexual promiscuity?
3. What do girls perceive to be causes of sexual promiscuity?

1.4  Research Hypothesis

       There is no significant difference on the perception of causes of sexual promiscuity among boys and girls

1.5.PURPOSE of the STUDY

The general purpose of this study is to find out the causes of sexual promiscuity among teenagers in Ethiope East Local government area of Delta state while the specific purpose is to find out:

üWhat girls perceive to be causes of sexual promiscuity.

üWhat boys perceive to be causes of sexual promiscuity

1.6  Significant of the Study

It is said that the “children of today are the leaders of tomorrow”. So, it becomes a vital issue to build up these children of today for a better tomorrow. And this resulted in the need to find out the causes of high rate of sexual promiscuity among teenagers in Ethiope East Local government area of Delta state, so as to find out a lasting solution to curbing it. It would help to restore moral values back into the society so as to have something meaningful to pass on to our future generation.

The relevance of the study is also to help prevent the people in the area from total extinction as a result of the deadly sexually transmitted diseases e.g. HIV/AIDS which according to statistics has claimed millions of lives including new born babies whom according to Dr (Mrs.) Caroline Umbese, can only live till 14 years of age, (Thursday vanguard of April 10th, 2008, page 43).

1.7  Scope and Delimitation

This study will cover Ethiope East Local government area of Delta state. This study will look critically into the various causes of high rate of sexual promiscuity among teenagers in the area.

1.8  Operational Definition of Terms

There are certain terms used in this work which may not be familiar to the readers of this research work, so therefore, in order to help the readers to understand better, it is necessary to clarify such. Terms as:

Abortion: The expulsion of the foetus from the womb.

AIDS: Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome

HIV: Human Immunodeficiency Virus

Intercourse: Sexual dealing between individuals

Premarital sex: sexual dealings or relationship outside marriage.

Sexual Promiscuity: when an individual have sexual intercourse with more than one partner.

STD: sexually transmitted diseases e.g. gonorrhoea, syphilis, HPV (Human Papilloma Virus), etc.

Teenagers: children from ages 13-19.

Virgins: male or female who has never had sexual intercourse since birth.

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