Morther's Time-Use and Daughter Welfare: Implication for Developemnt

The African culture promotes education that is initiated early in life through the process of socialization. One of the foremost value a girl-child learn from her mother is the importance of celibacy. The value placed on a girl-child is priceless in the Nigerian culture if discovered to have kept her virginity until marriage. Besides, this culture play a significant role in enhancing delay in sexual intercourse with corresponding probability of not contacting sexually transmitted infections (STIs) including HIV/AIDS. However, the culture is gradually waning due to mother's passiveness on sexuality education and the transference of the same responsibility to the school. While the Nigerian girl-child is exposed to sexual intercourse as early as 8-10 years (NDHS, 2013; Ursula & Nwobodo- Ani, 2010), Malaysians experience the same at a much older age of 23 years. Similarly, an average Indian girl-child would likely experience first sexual intercourse at 22.9 years, Singaporeans at 22.8 years, Chinese at 22.1 years, Thais at 20.5 years, Hong Kongers at 20.2 years and Japanese at a slightly lower 19.4 years (The Economic Times, 2015). While the timing of the actual lost of virginity might not be important, it might be important to know if first intercourses are pressured. This underscores the relevance of effective involvement of mothers’ as partners and custodian girl-child’s welfare. Thus, the study will examine the influence of parent especially mothers in delay sexual experience of girl-child which could invariably serve as fundamental panacea for reduction of numerous sexual health problems in Nigeria and human development. This will be carried out through the use of secondary and primary data. The secondary data will be extracted from Nigeria demographic health survey of 2013 and the primary data sourced through focus group discussions conducted among girls in ten randomly selected secondary schools in Nigeria.