HIV/AIDS Awareness and Adolescent student’s Involvement in Sexual Relationships in Secondary Schools in Cross River State: The Rural –Urban Narratives

This correlational research is aimed at determining the relationship between HIV/AIDS awareness and adolescents’ involvement in sexual relationship. The study was carried out in Cross River State. Three research questions guided the conduct of the research, while three null hypotheses were tested at 0.05 alpha level. All the 6449 SS2 students in all the 18 public secondary schools in Calabar Municipality and Ogoja Local Government Areas constituted the population of the study. The sample used consisted of 200 SS 2 students who were randomly drawn from ten secondary schools. The instrument for data collection was a questionnaire named HIV/AIDS Awareness and Adolescents Involvement in Sexual Relationship Questionnaire (HAAISRQ). One expert each in Health Education, Educational Psychology and Measurement and Evaluation validated the instrument. Reliability coefficient scores 0.84 and 0.86 for HIV/AIDS awareness and involvement in sexual relationship were respectively obtained through the test-retest method. Data collected were analyzed using simple percentage, Pearson product Moment Correlation and t-test. Results obtained from data analyses showed that there is a significant relationship between HIV/AIDS awareness and adolescent student’s involvement in sexual relationship in urban and rural secondary schools. It was further found that students in urban secondary schools are more involved in sexual relationships than their rural counterparts; this was attributed to the fact that those in urban centers are more informed because of their exposure to different information channels available to them than their rural counterparts. It was recommended among others that more HIV/AIDS awareness campaigns should be made to the rural secondary schools, while guidance and counseling services should be provided in all secondary schools, while sexuality education should also be introduced in all our secondary schools.