Self-esteem, risky sexual behaviour and academic achievement among secondary school students in Wakiso Town Council

Abstract

The study examined the relationship between self-esteem, risky sexual behaviour and academic achievement among secondary school students in Wakiso town council. The study was guided by the following objectives, that is, to assess the relationship between self-esteem and risky sexual behaviour among secondary school students in Wakiso Town Council, to find out the relationship between self-esteem and academic achievement among secondary school students in Wakiso town council, to establish the relationship between risky sexual behaviour and academic achievement among secondary school students in Wakiso town council and to find out whether risky sexual behaviour mediates the relationship between self-esteem and academic achievement. A quantitative research approach was employed in this study together with cross sectional and correlational research designs. Simple random, stratified random and systematic random sampling techniques were used to select the study sample. A total of 208 adolescent students responded to self-administered questionnaire and data were entered into and analysed using SPSS (v22.0). The hypotheses were tested using Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient and regression analysis. Results revealed that there was a negative significant relationship between self-esteem and risky sexual behaviour (r= -.73**, p < 0.01), Results further indicated that there was a negative significant relationship between risky sexual behaviour and academic achievement (r = -.56, p < 0.01). Results also revealed that there was a positive significant relationship between self-esteem and academic achievement (r = .42**, p < .01). Results finally indicated that risky sexual behaviour perfectly mediated the relationship between self-esteem and students’ academic achievement. (β = .01, p < .89). It was concluded that adolescent students who have high self-esteem were more likely to avoid engaging in risky sexual behaviour and may hence concentrate on their studies and achieve highly in their academics. It was recommended that attempts to improve the academic performance of students should focus on improving students’ self-esteem and controlling their engagement in risky sexual behaviour. Educationists therefore are required to help students build their self-esteem by providing continuous guidance and counselling as this could help them link their theoretical conceptions to the practical considerations.