Socioeconomic status, Peer pressure and Risky sexual behavior among undergraduate Makerere University students.

Abstract

The aim of this study was to examine the relationship between Socioeconomic status, Peer pressure and Risky Sexual Behavior among undergraduate Makerere University students. The study was conducted among students of College of Humanities and Social sciences of Makerere University. A correlational study design was used and 225 students participated in this study. Simple random sampling technique was used to select the respondents. A semi-structured questionnaire was the main tool used in data collection and data was analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS). Pearson’s correlation coefficient (r) was used to determine the level of significance of the hypotheses. Results of this study indicated that there is no significant relationship between socioeconomic status and Peer pressure, socioeconomic status and Risky Sexual Behavior, Peer pressure and Risky Sexual Behavior. However, regression results showed that there is a significant relationship between Socioeconomic status and age (r =0.14, p < 0.05). A negative significant relationship was also found between age and peer pressure (r = -0.14, p < 0.05). Bi-variable correlations indicated that there was no relationship between gender and all the variables under study (socioeconomic status, peer pressure and risky sexual behavior). This was suggestive of the fact that being male or female has nothing to do with socioeconomic status, peer pressure and risky sexual behavior of the student. According to other results of this study, it was revealed that on average 116 out of 225 respondents had engaged in risky sexual behavior. This implied that RSB is a common health concern among undergraduate university students which needs special consideration from youth-friendly service givers, policymakers, university administrators and families. Therefore, there is need to do further research in other colleges of Makerere University and to study the influence of multivariable correlations on Risky Sexual Behavior.