ABSTRACT
The study examined the sexual behaviour and knowledge towards Sexually Transmitted Diseases among students of senior Secondary Schools and university in Akure, Ondo State. The sexual behaviour of the respondents and their knowledge consisted the dependent variables. While demographic characteristics of age, gender, geographical location, marital status, religion, class, socio economic status, family type and sex patterns consisted the independent variables. Ex-post facto research design was adopted to collect the information required to test the hypotheses of the study. A multi-stage sampling technique involving stratified, purposive and random sampling techniques were used in the selection of respondents for this study. In the first stage, two urban and two rural secondary schools were selected purposely from each of the two Local Government Areas (LGAs) of Akure north and south Local Government Areas respectively, making a total of eight secondary schools. The second stage involved the selection of 269 students randomly selected from the secondary schools and 111 students were selected from the University of Technology Akure making a total of 380 respondents in all, to collect the needed data. A set of well-structured questionnaire was administered on the respondents on issues bordering on their demographic characteristics, sexual behaviour, practices and knowledge about sexual education in schools, knowledge about prevention and control of sexually transmitted diseases. Descriptive statistics of frequency tables, percentages, standard deviation and standard error were used for the analysis of data generated. Econometric analysis involving multiple regression analysis was also used to analyze the data generated. Results of the analysis showed that age of respondents, marital status, type of settlement/accommodation and number of sexual partners of the respondents were observed to significantly determine whether respondents had sex before marriage. A significant (at 5% level) F-value of 130.315 and an R2 of 0.906 implied that about 90% variability in the dependent variable were explained by the independent variables. It was also observed that an inverse relationship existed between age of respondents and their sexual behaviour i.e. younger respondents were more sexually active than their older counterparts. The major hypothesis and the two sub- hypotheses were subjected to descriptive statistical analysis. It is therefore recommended that age (i.e. the adolescent group) should be considered in any policy measure designed to enlighten the citizens about Sexually Transmitted Diseases. Also it is recommended that sound moral teachings should be promoted in schools and homes. Also religious leaders and teachers have duty to teach and help the adolescents on sound moral conducts in society.