Factors Responsible For Sexual Abuse As Expressed By Students Of Federal College Of Education, Osiele Abeokuta, Nigeria

Ladipo, Nichola, Paxmah, Delano, Kelly and Otolorin, (1986), stated that fifty to Sixty percent of unmarried young women at these stages are the adolescents. The word adolescent according to Hurlock (1973), is derived from the Latin word “Adolescence which means to grow” or to grow to maturity”. Psychologists see the adolescent as a period when an individual is capable of begetting offspring. This means that the period of adolescence is regarded as that period when an individual attain productive power.
    Adolescence is a period in which an individual progress from the point of the initial appearance of the secondary sex characteristics to that of sexual maturity. It is assumed that the adolescence falls between the ages of 11 to the early 21 chronologically. This is subject to variation from culture to culture and even socio-economic condition of a given country. In Nigeria for instance, it is assumed that adolescent ends when one get married. But broadly speaking, adolescent begins when the individual attains sexual maturity and ends when independence from adult authority is legally assured (Akinpelu, 1995).
    Since they have now attain that reproductive power, they will want to try – out all that they have heard, known and seen in the society, movies displaying series to sexual activities and by so doing, they become sexually active.
    The adolescent is also seen as a group continually seeking independence of the adult society particularly of parents and other authority figures. This need for independence had led adolescent to take a position and views different from those of their parents and other adults and to act in conformity with their peers, however, unconventional the act may be (Owumanam, 1988).
    Conformity in this wise refers to the act of agreeing with the expressed group opinion when pressed to do so and according to Santrock (1990), the pressure to conform to peers (like, adherence to a dress code, use of certain slang, and other behavioural mannerism reflecting conformity) become very strong during the adolescent years. Since the adolescent is being referred to as trawler, the transient nature of the adolescent and the search for self identify create confusion for him. More increasingly, he is bewildered by changes in sexual characteristics in his body. This sexual stirring and development in their body is one thing they develop interest in and try to explore.
    In recent study on youth’s sexually in Ibadan, Oyo State, it was discovered that 32% of secondary school students and 90% of working males are sexually active. Among all 18 years old, 51% of the girls and 78% of the boys had engaged in sexual intercourse while the mean age for initial sexual experience is 16 years (Saturday Tribune, 29 July 2000).
    Akinpelu, (1998) also noted most people have their first homo or heterosexual experience (not necessarily intercourse or even genital sex) during their adolescent years. These experiences, she said constitute an influential part of adolescent socialization, which is integral to sound psychological adjustment.
    Abogunrin, (1992) and Araoye, (1992) observed that youths are more willing to experiment sexually, to have sexual relations before marriage and to be more open in discussing sex with their peers and even sometimes with their parents. However, this style is characterized by conflicts with parents form adolescent and young people who always feel that their parents give little information about sex related issues.
    Akinpelu, (1998) also noted that one of the most vital ways in dealing with all of the sexual problem and conflicts adolescence is to establish human sexuality programme in the school. This she maintained in accordance with Gadza, (1992) included, the information phase which includes films, magazines, articles, lectures, etc. group counseling session, and individual counseling sessions. These programmes have been proved valuable for sexually active teenagers and youths.
History and Concept of Sexual Abuse
    Child sexual abuse is an old phenomenon (Plummber, 1993). The sexual exploitation of children-males and females – has occurred throughout history (Tower, 1984), yet it was not until the 16th century that legislation was enacted in England that began the process of protecting children from sexual abuse: boys were protected from forced sodomy, and girls under the age of ten years from forcible rape. By the time of the settlement of the United States, several prohibitions were becoming more stringent (Oates, 1990).