Publication:

Determination of the Level of Influence of Active Pornography Exposure on Psychosocial Wellbeing of Teenagers in Secondary Schools in Ruiru Sub-County, Kiambu County, Kenya

The availability and use of pornography has become almost ubiquitous among teenagers. It has become a routine among children and teenagers, with a range of notable and often troubling effects. The aim of this research is to determine the influence of pornography exposure on psychosocial wellbeing of teenagers in Ruiru Sub-County, Kiambu County, Kenya. The objective of the study is to determine the level of influence of active pornography exposure on psychosocial wellbeing of teenagers. Social learning theory by Bandura was used. The study was guided by mixed methods approach. The researcher employed a convergent parallel mixed method design. Convergent parallel design is done when both qualitative and quantitative data is collected concurrently and are equally prioritized. The target population was 6475 teenagers and 33 G/C teachers drawn from secondary schools in Ruiru Sub-County. Stratified sampling was used to select two strata which are public day schools and private schools. From the two strata purposive sampling was used to select eight day public schools and two private boarding schools. A sample of 377 teenagers was derived from 10 purposively sampled schools. Proportionate sampling was applied in distributing the sample to the selected schools. The researcher purposively sampled 10 G/C teachers. A questionnaire and interview schedule was used to collect data. Piloting was done in 2 schools to a certain the reliability. Validity was tested by requesting experts from the department of psychology to assess whether the questionnaire content is relevant. Reliability which was determined by use of Karl Pearson where if the coefficient was above 0.8 then the instrument was considered reliable. Thematic analysis was used to analyze qualitative data. Quantitative data was analyzed using inferential statistics specifically the ANOVA to determine the level of significance at 95% confidence interval which was used to accept or fail to accept the null hypothesis. Frequency distribution tables, percentages, pie and bar charts and inferential statistics were used to present the data. Data analysis was done using SPSS software version 26.The research findings shown that a bigger percentage of teenagers are exposed to online pornography and that active and passive pornography exposure had influence on psychosocial wellbeing of teenagers. In order to help teenagers make sense of their use of internet in healthy ways care givers, schools and other stakeholders can play a crucial role.