The relationship between exposure to electronic media and early sexual behaviours among secondary school students in Tanzania

This study examined the relationship between exposure to electronic media and early sexual behaviour among 338 secondary school students in Tanzania. The data were collected through the use of questionnaires, and the SPSS analysis involved the computation of Pearson Moment Correlation Coefficient (r), chi-square, and logistic regression analysis. It was found that the mean age for sexual debut ranged from 14 years to 17 years. While there were negative moderate correlations between times spent on watching television and the debut of sexual behaviour, there were insignificant and very weak negative correlations between the numbers of hours spent in watching television and sexual behaviours. It was further found that there was a high positive and statistically significant correlation (r =.69** n = 338, p < .01) between the age at which one first watched sexual explicit materials on television or computer and the age at which one first had vaginal sexual intercourse. It was concluded that watching sexually explicit materials on a television or computer positively influenced sexual behaviours among students both in terms of time of sexual initiation and in determining the status of one’s sexual behaviour. Practical and theoretical implications of the findings have been discussed and recommendations to parents, teachers, and policy makers have been made. It is recommended that 1) Students should be sensitized on the importance of trusting in their sense of self- control (perceived behavioural control) and critical thinking which might help them in making clear decisions regarding sexual behaviours instead of imitating everything they watch from the television or computer programs 2) Parents should help their children by censoring the programs their children watch, to make sure that sexual explicit materials are out of reach. Children should be encouraged to watch television programs in the presence of adults, who need to guide them on picking positive lessons from the programs. 3) Seminars on adolescents’ health related issues should be an ongoing process. 4) Parents and teachers need to expose students to sex education in the language that they can understand instead of avoiding the topic until the students explore it by watching sexual explicit materials on television or computer.