Prevalence of sexual violence and associated factors among female students of adigrat universtiy, adigrat, Ethiopia
International Journal of Development Research
Prevalence of sexual violence and associated factors among female students of adigrat universtiy, adigrat, Ethiopia
Received 29th December, 2016; Received in revised form 17th January, 2017; Accepted 26th February, 2017; Published online 31st March, 2017
Copyright©2017, Lemlem Gebremariam and Kahsay Amare. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Background: Sexual violence is prevalent and a major public health and human rights problem worldwide. It has posed a tremendous challenge to women both in the workplace and educational setting, and this problem has impacted women's self-esteem as well as their academic, social, and psychological wellbeing. One in five college women are victims of acquaintance rape during their academic career and less than 5% of college women who are victims of sexual assault report their victimization. However, there is limited data on sexual violence in higher education in Ethiopia particularly in the study area. This study, therefore, determined the prevalence and its associated factors among female students of Adigrat University, Adigrat, Ethiopia. Methods: Institutional based cross-sectional study was carried out between February 2016 and May 2016 among 414 female students of Adigrat University using multistage sampling technique. A pre- tested self-administered questionnaire was used. The data were analyzed in bivariate and multi-variate logistic regression analysis with SPSS version 20. Results: The mean age of participants was 19 years (SD=2). Thirty six percent of the respondents were sexually active at the time of the study. The magnitude of forced sex (rape) since being admitted to the university was 13.8%. Ninety four (94 %) of the victims of forced sex did not report the event to any legal body. Using multiple logistic regressions, child hood residence alcohol drinking, having multiple sexual partners and poor family income were associated with forced sex. Conclusions: This study showed a high prevalence of sexual violence against female students of Adigrat University. Therefore interventions are, required by college officials, non-governmental organizations, parents, students and other concerned bodies to create a safe learning environment for female students through primary prevention of sexual violence and rehabilitation programs for the victims through addressing these identified factors.
