Sexual Coercion of Adolescent Girls in Yoruba Land of Nigeria

This study investigates the magnitude and patterns of sexual coercion experienced by female adolescents in Southwest zone in Nigeria. The study population consists of all female adolescents aged 12-16 years. These adolescents are those who are either enrolled in the secondary school or those with limited education that was not in school at the period of this study. Samples of 475 girls were drawn from both the school and those not in schools. The sample was drawn from three different Yoruba speaking states in the south west Nigeria. The sampling techniques that were used were stratified and simple random sampling. The research instrument was a self constructed questionnaire title (SCAQ)Sexual Coercion of female Adolescents Questionnaire. The instrument has a reliability coefficient of 0.76 and was validated using, face content, validity procedure of testing validity. The data generated were analyzed using frequency counts and percentages for describing the data. The appropriate statistics such as t-test, Pearson product moment correlation and chi-square were used to make inferences about the data. The analysis of the data shows that girls have experienced sexual coercion such as verbal threats, unwanted touch, deceived into sex or forced sex. Other forms of sexual coercion such as verbal pressure, threats or unwanted holding of hands unwanted hugging or kissing as well as forced sexual activities have been experienced by girls. Based on the findings, it was recommended that skill training needs to be provided in and outside the school system. Teachers and counsellors should convey prevention messages so as to sensitize or discourage sexual coercion of female students in school.