Abstract
Body image perception (BIP) is the interpretation that a person has of his/her physical self, ranging from the shape and colour of hair, head, eyes, nose, lips, teeth, ear, breast, waist, hip, leg, skin and reproductive system functioning and the thoughts and feelings that result from that perception. Current research has focused mostly on age, sex, educational background and socioeconomic factors as contributing to risky sexual behaviour, thereby little is known about the influence of perception of body image on engagement in risky sexual behaviour. Thus, the purpose of this study was to examine female university undergraduates’ perception of their body image and to investigate the predictive contribution of body image perception on female university undergraduates’ engagement in risky sexual behaviour. Female university undergraduates over 1500 in Southwestern Nigeria constitute the sample size of this analytical study, carried out in 2019. The body image perception of individuals was measured by the Body Image Scale and the risky sexual behaviour of selected females was measured using the Youth Risk Behaviour Scale. The mean age of the participants was 23.4 ±, 57.3% were in their sophomore year, and 74.5% practised Christianity. 67.7% of them demonstrated positive body image perception while 32.3% of sampled female university undergraduates demonstrated negative body image perception. Body image perception was found to contribute to risky sexual behaviour. The findings suggest that closer attention should be given to exhibiting positive body image perception which is a strong predictor of risky sexual behaviour.
Author Information
Precious Akintoye, Obafemi Awolowo University, Nigeria
Sehinde Oluwatosin, Obafemi Awolowo University, Nigeria
Paper Information
Conference: ECE2024
Stream: Counselling
This paper is part of the ECE2024 Conference Proceedings (View)
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To cite this article:
Akintoye P., & Oluwatosin S. (2024) Body Image Perception: Predictor of Risky Sexual Behaviour Among Female University Undergraduates in Southwestern Nigeria ISSN: 2188-1162 The European Conference on Education 2024: Official Conference Proceedings (pp. 1-9) https://doi.org/10.22492/issn.2188-1162.2024.1
To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.22492/issn.2188-1162.2024.1
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