The Relationship between Self-Esteem and Sexual Risk-Taking Behaviours among Adolescent Students in Tanzania

Abstract

This paper quantitatively assessed the relationship between self-esteem andsexual risk-taking behaviours among adolescents. The study employed acorrelation design, using a questionnaire for data collection. A total of 511students participated in this study. The data was analysed using Pearson ' sCorrelation Coefficient. Results showed no significant relationship betweenself-esteem and sexual debut (r =.081, p > 0.05), self-esteem and safe sex(r =.081, p > 0.05) and a weak positive relationship between self-esteemand multiple partners (r =.033, p .470). This implies that self-esteem didnot influence sexual risk-taking behaviours. The study recommends fora related study using a qualitative approach to explore the role of othersocio-cultural aspects that can influence adolescents to be involved insexual risk-taking behaviours.Keywords: adolescents, multiple partners, safe sex, sex debut