Abstract

This study examined social media, parental sexual communication, self-efficacy, and peer influence, as predictors of sexual behaviour of young adolescents in Ibadan North Local Government, Ibadan, Oyo State. A total of 200 in-school adolescents, selected using a stratified sampling technique, participated in the study. Five instruments were used in this study: Sexual Behaviour Screening Test (15 items, r=0.85), Social Media Addiction (11 items, r=0.93), Peer Influence Scale (10 items, r=0.78), the Sexual Communication Scale (10 items, r=0.93), and the Self-Efficacy Scale (10 items, r=0.80). Three research questions were raised and answered in the study, and data were analysed using Pearson Product Moment Correlation and Multiple Regression. Results showed that adolescent sexual behaviour had significant correlation with social media (r = 0.530, p<0.05), parental sexual communication (r = 0.271, p<0.05), self-efficacy (r = 0.275, p<0.05) and peer-influence (r = 0.362 p<0.05) on the respondents. The result shows a coefficient of multiple correlations (R) of 0.702 and a multiple R square of 0.493. This means that 49.3% of the variance in sexual behaviour among participants is accounted for by all the four predictor variables when taken together. It was also discovered that the most potent factor was self-efficacy, followed by peer influence, then social media and parental sexual communication. Based on the findings of this study, it was recommended among other things that urgent attention by all concerned, including counselling psychologists, teachers, religious leaders, parents or guardians and the entire public is demanded. Governments, private organizations, parents and counsellors should give more attention to the adolescents as they are already exposed to undesirable sexual behaviours. Parents should give their children quality sex education and also get involved in their children’s activities on social media.