Young people in West Africa, like their counterparts in other parts of the world, are facing the challenges of early menarche combined with early sexual experimentation and delayed marriage. Unprotected sexual relations (either premarital or within marriage) are taking place at early ages. The results include unwanted pregnancies, early (unplanned) marriages, induced abortion, and also increasing incidences of sexually transmitted diseases including HIV/AIDS. The proposed paper will present the results of a multi-method research that employed the narrative methodological approach, appreciative inquiry and a sample survey to determine the factors influencing adolescent risk perception and sexual behaviors in Togo and Cameroon. Specifically, the paper will provide pertinent information on the types of situation that young people face that could lead to unsafe sexual behavior, how they handle such situations, and the influence of peers, parents and other adults on decisions to engage in, or abstain from, sex. Using the positive deviance data, the paper will also explore the motivating factors for positive behavior change. In general, the paper will seek, not to explain adolescent sex behaviors but to highlight the way adolescents perceive and explain their own sex behaviors. In conclusion, the paper will discuss the policy and programmatic implications of the findings.
Learning Objectives: To highlight the way adolescents perceive and explain their own sex behaviors.
Keywords: Adolescents, Sexual Risk Behavior
Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: Johns Hopkins University
I do not have any significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.