Apparently, rich kids are “spoiled”. This is according to a guy from my Community Development Service (CDS) group. At that particular CDS meeting, we were discussing the sex scandal that blew up earlier this month involving some students of Chrisland Schools, Nigeria, and the guy in question was of the opinion that children and teens from rich homes get spoiled (i.e., get involved in sexual activity from a young age, and, in the case of the girls, get pregnant) more easily than children and teens from less privileged backgrounds.
This got me wondering: does the socioeconomic background of children and teens have an influence on the level of their sexual exposure? Turns out it does, but the situation is flipped because poverty, rather than wealth, exposes children and teens to sexual activity earlier in life. This is because of the environment that poverty creates where there is a lack of resources and support, and limited education. This isn’t as abstract as it may seem if you just picture it: a family, mother, father and children, all living in one room where the mother and father are constrained to have sexual relations basically in the presence of the children. Although most couples do this at night while the children are presumably asleep, this isn’t a sustainable practice, especially as the children grow older.
This issue is of poor minors being exposed to sex is apparent from adolescent pregnancy statistics. In 2020, the World Health Organisation (WHO) estimated that 12 million girls aged 15–19 years and at least 777,000 girls under 15 years give birth each year in developing regions. This number does not include those who lose their pregnancies or lives from complications. Over the years, poverty has been identified as a leading cause of teen pregnancy in Nigeria by the Demographic and Health Survey. Poverty is also a risk factor for sexual abuse, and it definitely isn’t difficult to see how children from poor homes are more predisposed to this due to having less security and protection.
All of this isn’t helped by Nigerians’ tendency to be in denial about sex amongst teens because of our moral and cultural values, but the truth is that teenage years are a crucial and complicated time in the formation of a person’s sexuality, and teenagers need to be guided and guarded by the adults in their lives, particularly their parents.