The Role of Gender, Age and Religion in Explaining the Variations in Selected Sexual Experiences of University Teacher-Trainees in Uganda and Tanzania

Abstract

After a realisation that there are scanty studies conducted on university teachers trainees’ sexual experiences and how these experiences are shaped by gender, age and religion, this study set out to conduct survey on final/third year university teacher-trainees in two selected teacher training university colleges, one in Uganda and another in Tanzania, with the purpose of examining the role of gender, age and religion in explaining the variations in age of first sexual experience and number of both past and current sexual partners among the university teacher-trainees. The purely quantitative study was conducted on a population of 557 teacher-trainees who were selected that the students studied were drawn from a sample taken from a population using systematic random sampling. The teacher-trainees were final/third year students at both Makerere University’s College of Education and External Studies (MUK) and University of Dar es Salaam’s Constituent College of Education known as Dar es Salaam University College of Education (UDSM). The observed scores and resultant variations revealed that the variation in age of first sexual experience among male and female and male teacher trainees was non-significant while the variation in number of both past and current sexual partners among the two genders was significant. The variation in age of first sexual experience among the age groups was significant while the variation in number of both past and current sexual partners among the existing age groups was non-significant. The variation in age of first sexual experience, number of past and current sexual partners among the existing religions was non-significant all through. Basing on these findings therefore, it is recommended that sex education and policies be introduced in high institutions of learning while stressing education on contraception and messages about sex. Religious leaders too should participate in teaching against behaviours that lead to consequences of early sex debut and existence of concurrent multiple sexual partners among young people.