Adolescent’s sexual abuse in dar es salaam city, Tanzania

The Purpose of this study was to investigate the levels of adolescent’s sexual abuse in Dar es Salaam city. It was driven by the observation that there is an increasing incidence of adolescent sexual abuse with time in large cities like Dar es Salaam. The study was carried out in Dar es Salaam City from January to February 2010. Data was collected from a sample of 294 adolescents and six (6) discipline teachers. Questionnaires, semi structured interviews and in-depth interviews were used to collect primary data. Documentary reviews were used to collect secondary data. The findings show that majority of the adolescents were victims of sexual abuse since 58% of the respondents were already involved in sexual activities, mainly penetrative and non-penetrative sex. The mean age at first sexual intercourse was 14 years. The majority of the responsible persons (abusers) were neighbors and relatives. This is an indication of disintegration of neighborhoods, communities and kin networks. The effects of adolescent sexual abuse in this study were pregnancy, school drop-out, bad school performance, psychological trauma, prostitution, increased STIs risk and HIV/AIDS. The study concluded that adolescents’ sexual abuse was on the increase. However the problem can be reduced if appropriate measures are taken. Among the major recommendation include revitalizing population and sex education programs during childhood so as to acquaint adolescents’ with facts concerning human sexuality, and to increase awareness among community to make responsible and rational decisions concerning sexuality.