Students' perception on Hiv/Aids awareness attitude towards sex and sexual behaviour on availability of guidance and counseling services in Eldoret municipality, Kenya

Abstract

Youth in the contemporary times are exposed to several conflicting, distracting and stressful situations. In spite of HIV/AIDS curriculum integration in Secondary Schools, studies reveal that the youth are sexually active and many girls drop out of school due to pregnancy.Students are expected to excel in their academic performance regardless of the challenges they face. The purpose of this study was to investigate perception on HIVIAIDS awareness, attitude towards sex and availability of guidance and conselling services students' sexual behavior on among secondary school students in Eldoret Municipality. The study was based on rational Emotive behavior theory pronounced by Corey (2006) and the conceptual framework drawn by the researcher. Casual Comparative research designs are used. The target population was all the secondary schools in Eldoret Municipality where a sample size of 270 respondents were selected from nine schools. Random, stratified and purposive sampling techniques were used.ANOVA was used to test the hypothesis at 0.05 level of significance for all computations.The study revealed that guidance and counseling had significant influence on secondary school students' perception on HIV/AIDS awareness, attitude towards sex and sexual behavior. The study also revealed that availability of guidance and counseling services had high influence on students' attitude towards sex with the highest mean of 530.288. Based on the research study findings, it was recommended that the ministry of education should emphasize professional training in guidance and counseling for more secondary school teachers to meet the increasing demand of students due to free primary and subsidized secondary education. In addition, teachers in guidance and counseling should be encouraged to attend regular seminars and workshops to enhance acquisition of specific counseling skills needed for new approach in handling students with delicate moral issues. They should also be encouraged to cope up with the challenges they face in service delivery.