ABSTRACT
This study investigated peer influence and single parenting as predictors of sexual abuse among secondary school students in Ovia North East Local Government Area of Edo State, Nigeria. This study sought specifically to find if the relationship between peer influence, single parenting and sexual abuse differ based on age, class and school ownership. Six research questions were raised, their corresponding hypotheses were also formulated and tested at 0.05 alpha level of significance.
This study adopted a correlational survey research design. The population of the study consisted of all secondary school students in Ovia North East Local Government Area of Edo State, Nigeria. A sample size of three hundred (300) students were selected using a simple random sampling technique. The instrument for this study is a questionnaire titled " Single Parenting, Peer influence, and Sexual Abuse Questionnaire Scale ". The instrument consists of two sections; A and B. Section A contains demographic information of the respondents while section B consist of twenty-nine (29) items on 4 point Likert response format.
The findings of revealed that peer influence and single parenting are both significant predictors of sexual abuse among secondary school students (p<0.05). The findings also revealed that there is no significant difference among peer influence, single parenting and sexual abuse based on age and class(Z-cal<1.96). However, the findings established that there is significant difference between public and private schools in their disposition to sexual abuse among secondary school students in Ovia North East Local Government Area of Edo State (T-cal>1.96 & p<0.05). Based on the findings of this study, it was recommended that seminars should be organized for students on dangers of indecent dressing and premarital sex, secondary schools should ensure that they have a working counselling centre and professional counsellors who can offer group and individual counselling sessions for victims of sexual abuse. It was also recommended that government and non-government organizations should organize periodic sensitization and awareness programs on sex education in secondary school through various media platforms.
