Sexual violence against female university students in Ethiopia

Abstract

BackgroundThough many women are suffering the consequences of sexual violence, only few victims speak out as it is sensitive and prone to stigma. This lack of data made it difficult to get full picture of the problem and design proper interventions. Thus, the aim of this study was to assess the prevalence and factors associated with sexual violence among female students of Wolaita Sodo University, south Ethiopia.MethodsInstitution based cross-sectional study was conducted among 462 regular female Wolaita Sodo University students on April 7/2015. Participants were selected by simple random sampling. Data were collected by self-administered questionnaire. Data entry and analysis was done by EPI info and SPSS statistical packages respectively. Descriptive statistics were done. Moreover, bivariate and multivariate analyses were also carried out to identify predictors of sexual violence.ResultThe age of respondents ranged from 18 to 26 years. Lifetime sexual violence was found to be 45.4%. However, 36.1% and 24.4% of respondents reported experiencing sexual violence since entering university and in the current academic year respectively. Life time sexual violence was positively associated with witnessing inter-parental violence as a child, rural childhood residence, having regular boyfriend, alcohol consumption and having friends who drink regularly; while it was negatively associated with discussing sexual issues with parents.ConclusionSexual violence is a common phenomenon among the students. More detailed research has to be conducted to develop prevention and intervention strategies.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12914-017-0127-1) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Sexual Behavior and Abuse: A Case Study of University Undergraduates in Tertiary Institutions in Imo State, Nigeria

“…This was comparable to other mean ages reported in similar studies among students in higher institutions (Kamile, 2009;Hogue, 2011;Duru et al, 2015a;Mavhand-Madzusi and Asgedom, 2015;Akintayo et al, 2015;Adinew and Hagos, 2017). This fall within age range of youths and young adults which is the likely mean age of most university students.…”

“…This figure was slightly higher than the country's national average of 17.6 years (National Population Commission, Nigeria). It was also higher than figures reported from similar studies among undergraduates in Ethiopia (Soboka and Kejela, 2015;Kassa et al, 2016;Adinew and Hagos, 2017). Nevertheless it was comparable findings in other of the reviewed studies (Hogue, 2011;Mulu et al, 2014;Akintayo et al, 2015;Toferra et al, 2015).…”

“…A sizeable proportion of the respondents (33.8%) reported having more than two sexual partners in the last 1 year proceeding study and their commonest partner in the last 1 year was their boyfriend followed by causal partner, colleague and relative. In most studies reviewed, a sizeable proportion of female adolescents and young adult reported having sexual relationship with multiple sexual partners even though this occurred in varying proportions (kamile, 2009;Duru et al, 2010;Hogue, 2011;Fantahum et al, 2013;Toferra et al, 2015;Mavhand-Madzusi and Asgedom, 2015;Akintayo et al, 2015;Duru et al, 2015b;Kassa et al, 2016;Adinew and Hagos, 2017). Having multiple partners is a form of risky behavior and could predispose these young adults to STIs/HIV, unwanted pregnancy and consequences which are on the rise globally.…”

“…Kullima et al, (2010) reported that younger age at coitarche, history of forced coitarche, coitarche with relations and unknown persons significantly influenced subsequent risks of sexual assault among female Nigerian students. Other reviewed studies linked increased occurrence of sexual abuse with some forms of sexual behaviors like having any previous history of sexual intercourse (Adejimi et al, 2016;Kastbom et al, 2017) practicing risky sexual behaviors (Oluwatosin and Adediwura, 2010) having a regular boyfriend (Adinew and Hagos, 2017) alcohol and drug abuse (Skinner and Hickey, 2003;Kastbom et al, 2017;Adinew and Hagos, 2017) ever watched pornography (Mulu et al, 2014;Kastbom et al, 2017) prior victimization and consensual sexual activity (Mezie-Okoye and Alamina, 2014). These studies revealed that those with risky sexual behaviors were likely to have been sexually abused and this could endanger the future of these students.…”

Assessment of magnitude of risk sexual behavior among Mizan high school and preparatory school students, South West, Ethiopia, 2016: descriptive cross-sectional study

“…A study conducted in Wolayta Sodo University indicated that 26% of the students who had multiple sexual partners and study conducted in New York on college aged students investigated that those who had multiple sexual partners were 65.6%. 16,17 This discrepancy of findings in different study area may be due to the difference in the socio-demographic characteristics.…”