Abstract:

Objective: The objective of the study was to determine the association between religiosity and sexual behaviour among secondary school adolescents.

Research design: The study population included in-school adolescents aged between 15-19 years and used multistage and random sampling to pick elements at every stage.

Participants: The total sample size (N= 400) comprised adolescents from selected secondary schools in Matero and Woodlands townships in Lusaka.

Main outcome measures: The outcome measures included: levels of religiosity, sexual behaviour and association between religiosity and sexual behaviour.

Results: The analysis included all 400 adolescents. The majority of respondents were female (n= 59.3%) and Pentecostal Christians at (29%). The mean age was 16.2 with a standard deviation of 1.33. Age range of respondents was from 15-19 years with the majority aged 15 (34.25%).  87% respondents were religious and 88.25% of respondents were not involved in sexual activities. The Chi-square test results showed significant predictors of religiosity with a p-value less than 0.05. The test results showed that greater levels of religiosity were associated with lower levels of sexual activities and vice versa with a Chi-square value of 0.9954 and p-value=0.318. The relationship was however not significant at p-value 0.05.

Conclusion: The study concluded that greater levels of religiosity were associated with lower levels of sexual activities and vice versa with a Chi-square value of 0.9954 and p-value=0.318. The relationship was however not significant at p-value 0.05.

Keywords: Adolescent, Association, Behaviour modification, Religiosity, Religion, Sexual behaviour.

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