Select Radio Programmes and Adolescents Sexual Behaviour in North-Central Nigeria

Abstract

This paper assesses the effectiveness of two selected radio programmes-one thing at a time and radio diary on adolescents‘ sexual behaviour in North-Central Nigeria. A survey method was used for the study. Data were collected through depth interview from a purposive sample of 120 respondents drawn from two Tiv speaking rural communities in Gboko Local Government Area, and two ldoma speaking rural communities in Otukpo Local Government Area. Makurdi metropolis, which serves both as the capital and commercial nerve centre of Benue State served as the urban research community. Results confirm that changing the behaviour of people can be a very difficult task. The validity of this finding is to be seen in the fact that only 16.7% of the respondents positively changed their sexual behaviour as a result of information acquired from the selected programmes. It concludes that, there is a relatively low impact of the selected programmes on adolescents’ sexual behaviour in Northth-Central Nigeria and recommends a strong bahavioural change component for the programmes.