Determinant of Sexual Coercion among University Female Students in South-West Nigeria

AbstractThis study examined sexual coercion among University female students in South-West Nigeria. The sample consisted of 1,200 sexually coerced female students, selected from nine Universities drawn from South West using purposive sampling technique, simple random and stratified random sampling techniques. An instrument titled 'Sexual Coercion Questionnaire was used. The result showed that different forms of sexual coercion occurred among University female students and the level of occurrence was moderate. Findings revealed that age range and marital status of female students do not significantly influence their experience of sexual coercion among University female students. Based on the findings, it was recommended those young University females that are at greater risk of sexual coercion due to their physical features and some acts that are peculiar to them should be careful in dealing with the opposite sex. University female students (married and unmarried) should desist from congenial attitudes that could predispose them to sexual coercion. Counsellors in universities should organize seminars on female health argue for effective security in Nigeria Universities to curb sexually coercive behaviours. Provision of well secured accommodation for university female students and design effective programme on sexually acceptable behaviour that would enhance a change of behaviour among University female students. The importance of conducting this research is that it provides information on prevalence of sexual coercion, factors responsible for sexual coercion and effects of sexual coercion on female university students. It also provides baseline information for prospective researchers on causes, effects and consequences of sexual coercion.Keywords: sexual coercion, age, marital status, behaviour, university, females.INTRODUCTIONSexual coercion refers to any unwanted sexual activity or forceful sexual contact which could interferes with one's life. It is an interaction in which someone is forced to engage in sexual act against his or her will. It could be regarded as an act of compelling a person to involuntarily engage in sexual acts by the use of threats, violence, intimidation, deception, alcohol, drugs or some other forms of pressure or force, which may typically involve the infliction of physical and psychological harm. This act may lie on the continuum of sexual aggressiveness and harmful behaviour, ranging from unwanted touch, verbal intimidation, harassment, attempted rape, to forceful sex, referred to as rape.Sexual coercion has been defined by different researchers (Koss, 2000; Tanzman, 2009) as sexual activities with one or more persons, with greater power due to age, physique, status, position or knowledge without the other party's mutual consent. This implies that age, physique, status, position, wealth can be used atimes as a driving force for sexual coercion and usually fear, weakness, lack of understanding and helplessness may be involved in such situations.Sexual coercive activities are unwanted sexual touch such as slapping the buttocks of the opposite sex, touching the breast, scratching or parting an opposite sex's back, grabbing of their waists. Sexual coercive activities also include being tricked into having sex, attempted rape, and actual rape, fondling of opposite sex's partners sexual organs, unwanted sexual jokes, comments, talks and gestures. Also included are noncontact abuse and other sexual acts such as molestation, harassment, forced viewing of pornography, repeated request for dates, threatening text messages, arousal gesture, indecent exposure. Other forms are intimidation and verbal pressure. According to Omoteso (2006), sexual coercion can be categorized into different ways that by reference to the situation in which it occurs by the identity or characteristics of the perpetrators. These categories are referred to as types of sexual coercion such as date acquaintance sexual coercion, marital or spousal sexual coercion, gang sexual coercion, sexual coercion of children, statutory sexual coercion, prison sexual coercion, war and transactional sexual coercion. …