The Role of Internalized Homophobia and Body Appreciation in Predicting Risky Sexual Behaviour Among Sexual Minorities in Nigeria.

Abstract

The study investigated the role of internalized homophobia and body appreciation in predicting risky sexual behaviour among sexual minorities in Nigeria. A total of forty-eight (48) sexual minority individuals were recruited using a non-probabilistic sampling method, relying on social network strategies to access a hard-to-reach population. Their ages ranged from 18 to 36 years old, with the mean age of 24.83 and standard deviation of 4.46. Three instruments were used for data collection. They included: Revised Internalized Homophobia Scale, Body Appreciation Scale 2 and Sexual Risk Survey. It adopted a correlational research design and  moderated regression analysis as the research design and statistics respectively. The result revealed: a) a non-significant negative prediction of internalized homophobia on risky sexual behaviour among the studied population (β = -0.29, p >.05), b) a non-significant negative prediction of body appreciation on risky sexual behaviour (β = -0.49, p > .05), and c) the interaction term between internalized homophobia and body appreciation was also not statistically significant (β = 0.02, p = >.05), indicating that body appreciation did not moderate the relationship between internalized  homophobia and risky sexual behaviour. These results highlight the need to explore other psychosocial and structural factors influencing sexual risk-taking among sexual minorities in Nigeria, with implications for culturally sensitive clinical interventions and public health programming.