Sexual networking in southwestern Nigeria

Abstract

Freud's discussion of infantile sexuality triggered considerable interest in sexual attitudes of boys and girls, particularly those at the age of adolescence. Prominent in the development of knowledge of sexual behaviour and in the attempt to make sexuality a scholarly topic for academic and public discussion are the works of Kinsey (Kinsey, Pomeroy and Martin 1948, 1953). Before Kinsey's research, sexuality was an indecent subject that should be discussed only in private. There is today, however, marked concentration of research efforts on sexuality, made from different perspectives. In Nigeria, such attempts are not lacking, not even in the southwestern part where the present study was conducted...... Today, the cultural regulations regarding premarital sex are no longer adhered to; the ideal virginal marriage or virginity at marriage no longer exists. Renne (1993) has observed that not only is virginity at marriage no longer perceived as socially desirable in southwestern Nigeria but it is now perceived as 'socially backward', 'antisocial' or even associated with infertility-related diseases such as gonorrhoea and 'epilepsy'. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the sexual networking and contraceptive behaviour of students in southwestern Nigeria, with a view to determining specifically the extent of high-risk behaviour of the subjects in terms of STD and AIDS/HIV transmission; the students' behaviour patterns aimed at preventing STD and AIDS transmission; and the students' degree of awareness of, as well as their attitudes, towards AIDS.