Demographic Factors as Determinants of Adolescents’ Help-seeking Intention for Sexual Exploitation in Tanzania

Authors

Budeba Petro MlyakadoFollow
Jessica Chi-Mei Li, Hong Kong Polytechnic University,Follow

Abstract

This study examines the influence of adolescents’ gender, age, locality, and history of sexual victimisation on adolescents’ help-seeking intention for sexual exploitation. It compares how these demographic variables influence adolescents’ intention to seek help from formal sources (teachers, police, doctors/nurses, counsellors/social workers, local government leaders, and religious leaders); informal sources (parents, i.e., father and mother), guardians (uncles, aunts and grandparents); siblings (brothers, sisters or cousins), and friends. In this study, a cross-sectional survey is used to examine responses from a stratified random sample of 1,116 adolescents aged 13-17 years (M = 15.66; SD = 1.09), recruited from rural and urban secondary schools in Tanzania. The sample comprises 21% of adolescents who indicated at least one experience of sexual victimisation, measured using a modified ‘Sexual Coercion Scale’; whereas adolescents’ intention to seek help for sexual exploitation is measured using the ‘General Help-Seeking Questionnaire’. Data analyses are performed using dependent and independent t-tests. The results indicate that the majority of the surveyed adolescents have moderate intention to seek help for sexual exploitation. Additionally, being male, aged 15 years or below, living in urban, and having a history of sexual victimisation are associated with low intention to seek help for sexual exploitation, especially from informal sources of help. The findings of this study are discussed in context of Tanzania. Interventions to enhance help-seeking intention and behaviour among adolescents and remove the resistance to sources of help through strengthening the preferred sources of help are suggested.

Recommended Citation

Petro Mlyakado, Budeba and Chi-Mei Li, Jessica (2021) "Demographic Factors as Determinants of Adolescents’ Help-seeking Intention for Sexual Exploitation in Tanzania," Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences: Vol. 10 : No. 3 , Article 3.
Available at: https://doi.org/10.56279/jhss.v10.i3.2