Determinants of sexual abuse among selected female adolescents in semi-urban Calabar Municipality, Cross River State, Nigeria (Preprint)

BACKGROUND Sexual abuse also known as sexual violence refers to any act perpetuated with the intension of obtaining sex through force, violence or coercion, this encompasses a variety of situations, such as rape, sexual or physical abuse. OBJECTIVE This study assessed the determinants of sexual abuse among selected female adolescents in semi-urban Calabar Municipality, Cross River State, Nigeria. METHODS Cross-sectional descriptive design was adopted. A total of 241 female senior secondary schools (SS I & SS II) students of four (4) public secondary schools in semi-urban Calabar Municipality were selected as sample of the study using simple random sampling techniques. The instrument of data collection was a structured questionnaire. Data collected were presented and analyzed using frequencies, percentages and descriptive statistics (Means [ ]). The hypothesis was tested using Chi-square (X2) analysis. RESULTS The findings of the study revealed that the environmental determinants of sexual abuse among female adolescents include: living in isolated environment, living in an environment where you are surrounded by men, walking in lonely places at night, living in city slums and living in neighbourhoods where crime rate is high. There is a significant relationship between age and occurrence of sexual abuse among female adolescents in semi-urban Calabar Municipality. CONCLUSIONS Those living in isolated environment surrounded by men, walking in lonely places at night, living in city slums and living in neighbourhoods where crime rate is high attending clubs and parties, poor parent-child relationship, making friends with males, peer pressure indecent dressing, having poor self-concept, low self-confidence, negative attitude to sex, and lacking the sense of decency often leads to sexual abuse