SEXTING AND RISKY SEXUAL BEHAVIOUR AMONG UNIVERSITY OF GHANA STUDENTS

ABSTRACT

Background: Youth sexuality is of paramount interest to many stakeholders, since potential negative consequences may occur. These include HIV/AIDS, other STIs, and unintended pregnancies. Studies elsewhere indicate that sexting increases risky sexual behaviour among the youth.

In Ghana however, there is no empirical evidence about sexting behaviours among the youth and the extent to which sexting influences risky sexual behaviours.

This study, sought to examine the influence of sexting on risky sexual behaviour among University of Ghana students. Specifically, it determined the prevalence of sexting among students of the University Of Ghana, the factors that motivate sexting and the relationships between sexting and risky sexual behaviours.

Methodology: The study was a cross-sectional quantitative study using structured questionnaires. A multistage cluster sampling technique with probability proportional to size was used in the sampling process, to compute for the number of students to be used. The measure of size was the number of students in each Hall. First, five (5) Halls out of the 11 mixed Halls were randomly selected using the lottery method.

The second stage involved systematic selection of room numbers of the selected halls. Respective sampling intervals were calculated for each Hall, and every nth room was selected.

In the third, one student was chosen at random from the selected rooms. In cases where a student in the selected rooms refused to participate in the study, or didn’t meet the eligibility criteria, we moved to the next room.

At the end of the study the proportion of student sexters and their motivation for doing so was known. The study also determined whether sexting influences sexual behaviour. Data were analyzed using frequencies, Chi-square and logistic regressions in STATA version 13.0.

Results: The study found that most of the students use a smart phone for internet connectivity and females were noted to sext more than males. Overall, 255(38%) of the students have ever sent a sexually suggestive message, and 463(69.1%) have ever received a sexually suggestive message. About 237 (51.2%) were engaged in two way sexting. The reasons given for sexting included to get noticed 427(63.7%), 376(56.1%) to fish for compliments and as a sexy gift for boyfriends/ girlfriends 398(59.4%).

About 160(24.9%) were involved in risky Sexual behaviours. A multivariate analysis showed that there was no significant association between sexting and risky sexual behaviour.

Conclusion: The study showed that females sext more than males and about a quarter of the students are involved in risky sexual behaviours. However there was no association between sexting and risky sexual behaviour.

Key words: Sexting, risky sexual behaviours, two way sexting, University of Ghana