Intimate partner violence among undergraduate students of two universities of the state of São Paulo, Brazil

Abstract

Introduction: The prevalence of violence in intimate relationships, suffered or perpetrated, was estimated among undergraduate students, be it physical, psychological and sexual, describing the overlap between them. This is an original study and there is scarce literature on this matter in Brazil. Men and women were investigated and some issues on gender violence were discussed. Methods: The study is part of the multicenter survey "International Study of Violence in Dating -IDVS" conducted in 2002 -2003, using its standardized instrument. A total of 362 students, from two universities in the state of São Paulo, one public and one private, answered the self-reported questionnaire, being 37% male and 63% female, mean age of 20 years old. Suffered and perpetrated intimate partner violence during life was examined. Results: Among all interviewees, 75.9% suffered and 76.4% perpetrated some kind of violence throughout life. Psychological violence was the most prevalent type, followed by sexual violence, both suffered and perpetrated. The great superposition between suffered and perpetrated violence (83.9%) reflects the reciprocity of aggression, with no observed difference between men and women. The results of this study are consistent with previous literature on dating violence, which shows high prevalence of suffered and perpetrated violence, besides reciprocity for both men and women. Conclusions: Intervention actions at this stage of intimate relationships may potentially impact on subsequent marital partnership situations. Keywords

Frequency of self-reported sexual aggression and victimization in Brazil: a literature review

“…For example, using the same instrument to assess sexual victimization, two studies in the five major regions of Brazil found similar rates of lifetime female sexual victimization (13% in 2004 23 and 10% in 2010 24 ). Studies that used CTS2 in university students also found similar previous-year incidence rates, ranging from 39% to 40% in women and 30% to 37% in men 38,39,40 . Of the twelve studies that adopted the WHO questionnaire, three found similar lifetime prevalence rates for sexual victimization, varying from 9.8% to 11.8% in São Paulo State 13,26,41 .…”

“…The highest previous-year incidence rate was reported by a sample of university students (38.5% in women and 34.5% in men) 38 . Three other studies also reported high victimization rates in university students 14,39,40 .…”

“…Despite the heterogeneity of methods and limited comparability of data, the review showed that sexual aggression is a pervasive problem in young adulthood 3,14,29,38,39,40,43 and is much more prevalent than identified by official data. Studies that used the same definition of sexual victimization and same time interval showed comparable rates, suggesting consistency of the instrument across samples.…”

“…However, it was not possible to say with certainty that this group is at greater risk than the general population, for two reasons: the two samples were not compared to each other, and the rates were obtained by different measures. Higher victimization rates in university students could be attributed to the instruments used, like CTS2 and SES 14,38,39,40 . These instruments consist of multiple items with behaviorally specific descriptions of unwanted sexual acts, which prevents vagueness.…”

“…Two studies included female respondents only, three studies included men and women, and four studies included men only. Specific social groups were addressed by seven studies: university students 14,38,40,43 , pregnant women 44 , men who have sex with men 35 , and HIV-positive men who have sex with women 45 .…”