Psychosocial Predictors of the Risk Sexual Behaviour Intention Among University Students in Tanzania

Background: Risk Sexual Behaviours (RSBs) are prevalent among university students regardless of the negative consequences like Sexually Transmitted Infections (STIs), HIV/AIDS, unintended pregnancies, and unsafe abortions. Despite various reproductive health education initiatives, their impacts remain little, leaving increase of students’ exploration in sexual behaviours. In Tanzania, there is a dearth of research studies about the psychosocial predictors of students’ intention to engage in RSBs. Methods: The current study employed a cross-sectional design to examine the predictive capacity of attitudes, subjective norms (SNs), and perceived behavioural control (PBC) in shaping students’ intentions towards RSBs. Through convenient sampling, data were collected from 749 students at the University of Dar es Salaam and the University of Dodoma. Both descriptive and inferential statistics were used in the analysis. Results: Findings indicate that the majority of students (80.4%) reported low intention to engage in RSBs, whereas 19.6% exhibited high intention. Multivariate logistic regression revealed that subjective norms and perceived behavioural control were significant predictors of students’ intention to engage in RSBs. Conclusion: The study findings demonstrate that SNs emerged as the strongest predictor of students’ intention to engage in RSBs particularly multiple sexual relationships, oral sex and non-condom use. The PBC significantly predicted the intentions related to multiple sexual relationships and oral sex, while attitudes were statistically significant in non-condom use. These results imply that perceived social influence and student’s sense of control over behaviour poses strong influence on RSB intentions than personal evaluative attitudes, especially within the university context under which the investigation is taking place.