ENVIRONMENTAL AND AFFECTIVE FACTORS AS DETERMINANTS OF RISKY SEXUAL BEHAVIOUR AMONG ADOLESCENTS WITH VISUAL IMPAIRMENT IN SOUTHWESTERN NIGERIA

Abstract

Adolescents with visual impairment find it difficult to engage in safe sexual practices because of their disability, and their inability to access sexuality information. Past studies on risky sexual behaviour persistently focused on adolescents without visual impairment to the neglect of adolescents with visual impairment. This study, therefore, was designed to examine peer pressure, school climate, parenting style, sexual attitudes and emotional intelligence as determinants of risky sexual behaviour among adolescents with visual impairment in southwestern Nigeria. Ecological System Theory provided the framework, while the survey design of the ex-post facto type was adopted. The purposive sampling technique was used to select 12 integrated schools in the six southwestern states: Ekiti (one), Lagos (four), Ogun (four), Ondo (one), Osun (one) and Oyo (one).Snellen’s chart was used to screen adolescents with visual impairment to ascertain their visual acuity. Three hundred and eleven adolescents with visual impairment totally were enumerated. The instruments used were Peer Pressure (α=0.84), School Climate Student (α=0.92), Parenting Style (α=0.84), Sexual Attitudes (α=0.85), Emotional Intelligence (α=0.97) and Adolescents Risky Behaviour (α=0.73) scales. Data were subjected to descriptive statistics, Pearson’s product moment correlation, multiple regression and t-test at 0.05 level of significance. Respondents’ age was 17.00 ± 0.72 years, and 53.7% were male. School climate (r=0.21) and emotional intelligence (r=0.24) had significant positive relationships with risky sexual behaviour while parenting styles, peer pressure and sexual attitudes did not. There was a joint contribution of the independent variables to risky sexual behaviour among adolescents with visual impairment (F (5; 288) = 5.05; adj. R2 = 0.07), accounting for 7.0% of its variance. Emotional intelligence (β=0.20) and School climate (β=0.08) contributed to risky sexual behaviour but parenting styles, peer pressure and sexual attitudes did not.There was a significant difference between the female (X ̅ =17.15) and male (X ̅ =16.69) adolescents’ sexual attitudes and tendency to engage in risky sexual behaviour, indicating that female adolescents with visual impairment displayed a higher tendency to engage in risky sexual behaviour. School climate and emotional intelligence influenced risky sexual behaviour of adolescents with visual impairment in southwestern Nigeria. Efforts should be made by parents, teachers, school administrators and counsellors to create enabling environment and educate adolescents with visual impairment, particularly the females, on the consequence of risky sexual behaviour.