CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background of the Study
Sexuality is a compelling aspect of being human. Sexual desires and reactions constitute a natural built-in-part of how our bodies work. In many studies, sexuality has been defined as a central aspect of being human throughout life (Lindy and Cowenhoven, 2001 & Action Health Incorporated (AHI), 2003). According to World Health Organization (WHO, 2002), sexuality encompasses sex, gender identities and roles, sexual orientation, pleasure, intimacy and reproduction. Thus, sexuality refers to the totality of a human being. This includes a person’s experiences, thoughts, fantacies, desires, beliefs, attitudes, behaviours, practices, roles and relationships.
However, sexuality has five broad components, namely (1) humanDevelopment: This is characterized by the interrelationship between physical, emotional, social and intellectual growth. Examples are reproductive physiology and anatomy, growth and development and others. (2)Emotions and relationships which refer to the ability of and need by human beings to experience emotional closeness to others and have it returned. Examples can be seen in families, friendships, among others; (3)Sexual Health requires specific information, attitudes and actions one should have and display to avoid the unwanted consequences of sexual behaviour. It includes the care and maintenance of the sexual organs, attitudes and behaviours related to reproduction and health consequences of sexual behaviour, while (4)Sexual behaviour boarders on the variety of ways human beings express their sexuality. This includes masturbation, shared sexual behaviour, abstinence, human sexual response and fantasy (5)Sexualviolence is concerned with an abusive or unjust use of power that has a sexual element or intent. Examples are sexual abuse and incest, rape, manipulation through sex and sexual harassment.
Based on the above definitions and descriptions, sexuality can be summed up as such a broad term encompassing many facets of who we are. In fact, sexuality is a process that evolves throughout our lives, an active inseparable part of who we are. Thus, in this study, sexuality means the totality of a person from cradle to grave, consisting of many interrelated factors, among which is sexual behaviour. Sexual behaviour is the various ways a human being experiences and expresses sexual pleasure with or without a partner. Through recent studies (sexuality Information and Education Council of United States (SIECUS) 2002, Ifelunni and Okorie 2003, Ezedum 2003, Action Health Incorporated’ 2005, Alisigwe 2006, Olujide 2009, Ugoji 2009 and others), data were gathered about the specific ways human beings including the young persons exhibit different levels of sexual behaviour. These include – Masturbation which is the stimulation of genitals, it can be engaged with a partner in form of mutual masturbation. Shared sexual behaviour involves having sexual activities with another person. Other forms of sexual behaviours are- stroking (hugging, touching, holding hands, kissing on the lips or other parts of the body), wearing of skimpy dresses (clothes that do not cover much of the body, alias sagging), sexual intercourse (anal, vaginal or oral) means the insertion of the erect penis into the vagina; abstinence means not engaging in all forms of sexual intercourse. Human sexual response refers to the body response of men and women to sexual stimulation, Sexual fantasy means performing various sex acts in different places or with different persons through the free play of imagination (day dreaming).
Sexual Dysfunction is a chronic inability to respond sexually in a way that one finds satisfying. Sexual identity is a person’s internalized conviction of his or her own status as a male or female. It also means a person’s sense of his/her orientation, feelings and attraction. Sexual Orientation is a person’s inner feelings of emotional and sexual attraction to others. (AHI,2003)
Sexual behaviour can also be the expressing of sexual feelings or actions to the opposite sex. It is called heterosexual behaviour. If it is to the same sex, it is called homosexual behaviour and when one expresses sexual feelings to both sexes, it is called bisexual behaviour. Transvestism is another form of sexual behaviour. It refers to the use of the clothing of the opposite sex for sexual arousal. Transexualism is also a sexual behaviour. This involves one feeling like the opposite sex in order to sexually attract the opposite sex (Judith, Brook and Elinor, (1994) and AHI (2003). In this study, sexual behaviour refers to those sexual activities that are common among adolescents as kissing, breast/genital fondling, embracing, holding hands, touching, sexual intercourse, sexy dressing, sex discussions, caressing, pinching of buttocks among others. Touching means a specific sensation that occurs in response to situations by light strokes or pleasure. Kissing means touching with the lips. Breast/genital fondling refers to stimulation of the breast or penis. Hugging /Embrace refers to the intimate act of embracing especially using the arms across the truck of the body. Holding hands is an expression of friendship. Sexy dressing means wearing of cloths that do not cover much of the body. It is also called sexualized appearance. Sex discussions refer to talking about sex and sex related issues. It also means engaging in sexual provocative conversation. Caress stands for a gentle loving touch or kiss. Pinching of buttocks means pressing a part of someone’s flesh very tightly between your finger (s) and thumb. Any of the above specific aspects of sexual behaviour can also be referred to as sexual relationship which are cause by human sexual feelings and reactions. In other words, sexual behaviour refers to means the variety of ways secondary school students express their sexual feelings.
Sexual feelings and reactions although are natural, expressing them correctly especially when one is young (young age) without adequate knowledge received from a well planned programme such as sexuality education is not easy. The young persons in secondary schools are called adolescents because they are in the Adolescence period. Adolescence is a period in human growth and development that occurs after childhood and before adulthood. Some scholars believe that adolescence is a post pubertal population that is made up of young boys and girls who are not more than twenty years of age. Secondary school students as adolescents have been classified according to age range into early (10-14 yrs), middle (15-19yrs) and late adolescence (20-25yrs). However, age is not an accurate measure an adolescence due to difference in cultural norms, expectations and the rate of development in individuals, but experience shows that at 12 years of age, young male and female persons enter into secondary schools in Nigeria and are called secondary school students. Most of them leave secondary school between 17 and 19 years of age. Few ones that are between the ages of 10 and 11 years can also be found in our secondary schools. Some of these students are in junior secondary while others are in senior secondary. These young persons are called adolescents in secondary schools or in – school adolescents. These in-school adolescents, at the age of 12 to 19 are already involved in sex exploration more than adults realize and their main source of information is the peer group. Secondary School Students as adolescents experience a lot of physiological and psychological changes in their body accompanied by alterations in behaviour that are well known to involve risks to health. The physical changes during adolescence include growth in height and size, pubic hair on and around the genitals, legs, face and under arms, development of sex organs among others. They also experience emotional and social changes such as feeling alone, being misunderstood, sadness, depression, anger, alienation, and development of sexual feelings to someone else (Okwubunka, 1992 and Dosumo in Ifelunni 2003). Thus the students become sexually active at this stage, meaning that they have great pressure to have sex and they really engage in sexual activities such as Kissing, breast/genital fondling, embracing, holding hands, sexual intercourse, buying/selling of sex, flirting and others. (Lasela and Alao 1991, Achalu 1996, Obikeze 1997, Mcsweeney 2001, Ifelunni and Okorie, Nwankwo, Ezedum 2003, Olujide 2009 and Ugoji 2009). In this study, secondary school students are the adolescents who are between the ages of 10 – 19 years in our schools.
The adolescent students find it difficult to cope with all these changes and so they need to be assured that all of these are a normal part of growing up. Unfortunately, relatively little information is made available to them on the specific nature of their sexuality (Ifelunni, 2003). Therefore, it is of utmost importance to provide them with appropriate sexuality education especially as it affects their sexual life and health. Although teachers claim that adolescent growth and development are taught in schools and most schools teach something about physical changes during puberty (Ugoji, 2009), whether the information transmitted is of any value is questionable.
Sexuality Education is a process of acquiring information and forming attitudes and beliefs about sex, sexual identity, relationship and intimacy. In this study sexuality education means a planned process of education that fosters the acquisition of factual information, the formation of positive attitudes, beliefs and values and the development of skills to cope with the biological, psychological, socio-cultural and spiritual aspects of human sexuality. It is also about developing young people’s skills so that they make informed choices about their behaviour and feel confident and competent about acting on these choices. This could be the reason why it is now widely accepted that young people have right to sexuality education (United Nations Declaration of Human Rights (2002). This could also partly account for the recent interest in the health of adolescent that has grown in many countries, for instance, U.S.A., Germany, Britain, Sweden and even Ghana integrated Sexuality Education into their secondary school curricular in the recent times. In Nigeria, the National Council on Education (NCE) after its 2004 meeting, mandated all the states in the federation to teach Sexuality Education to Secondary School Students. In response to this, one time Anambra State commissioner for education through the state ministry of education (in a – 3 – day workshop) sensitized principals of pilot schools on the teaching of sexuality education in schools. Copies of Comprehensive Sexuality education (Trainers’ Resource Manual) in form of syllabus for the teaching of sexuality education were given to the principals, to ensure its effective take off; although it has not been adequately integrated (Ursala, 2001 and Nwandu, 2005). Sexuality education.
Sexuality education which is often provided in organized block of lessons by expert teachers (Wade, Benton and Schgen, 2004), aims at promoting the health of learners by allowing them the opportunities to develop a positive and factual view of sexuality, acquire information and skills needed to take care of their sexual health as well as prevent STIS, HIV/AIDS, respect and value themselves and others. It is also responsive to the needs of the students themselves, whether they are girls or boys on their own or in a single sex or mixed sex groups, in the urban or rural areas and what they already know, their age and experiences (Sewell, 2006); which they are required to express according to their genders. This is because in Nigeria as a whole and Igbo land in particular, people including the adolescents are to behave according to gender. Gender is the condition of being masculine or feminine through one’s behaviour. This means there are behaviours meant for males and there are the ones meant for students. For instance, in traditional Igbo society, males are expected to be strong and assertive while females are expected to be soft, sensitive, cook for the family and nurture children. In terms of sexual behaviour, males are to initiate sexual behaviour while females are to be reserved. Therefore gender means socially defined roles for men and women in a society. But in the present study gender refers to the manifestation of sexual behaviour by male and female students in their various school locations. School location refers to the place where a school is sited. It is called the geographic location of a school (Jones, 2002).Some secondary schools in Anambra state are located in urban areas while some are located in the rural areas. Here, urban area means township or metropolitan part of a State or town. Rural area means the local area or an undeveloped part of Onitsha Education Zone. However, some scholars have asserted that school location significantly affect the reading Comprehension and numeracy scores of students (Jones 2002). But Ezedum (2003) and Obadofin in Ifelunni (2003) found no difference between urban and rural adolescents’ heterosexual behaviour pattern and sexual awareness respectively. This study will find out whether gender and location affect sexual behaviours of secondary school students in terms of engagement in heterosexual debut, multiple sex partnership, wearing of sexy dresses, use of condom, breast/genital fondling, kissing and others.
