Assessment of Parental Socio-Demographic Determinants on Sexual Abuse among Senior Secondary School Students in Benin Educational Zone, Edo State

This study assessed parental socio-demographic determinants on sexual abuse among senior secondary school students in Benin educational zone, Edo state. Three research questions and hypotheses were raised to guide the study. The study adopted the descriptive survey research design and the population of the study comprised all public and register private senior secondary schools in Benin educational zone. The multi-staged sampling technique was used to select 184male students and 200 female students making a total of 384respondents for the study. A Self-structured questionnaire titled "Sexual Abuse among Secondary School Students (SASSS)" was used for the collection of data. The research instrument was validated and reliability coefficient of 0.73 was obtained using the test-retest reliability method. Data obtained were analyzed using chi-square inferential statistics. Findings revealed that there is no significant relationship between parental marital status and sexual abuse among senior secondary school students in Benin educational zone, Edo State. Similarly, the study established a significant relationship between parental socio-economic status and family size and sexual abuse among senior secondary school students in Benin educational zone, Edo State. The researchers concluded that parental socio-economic status and family size are socio-demographic determinants on the occurrence of sexual abuse among senior secondary school students in Benin educational zone. On the contrary, marital status is not a parental socio-demographic determinant on the occurrence of sexual abuse among senior secondary school students in Benin educational zone. The researchers recommended that government and non-governmental agencies should develop support programs for families from lower socio-economic backgrounds