Sexual violence against female university students in Ethiopia

BACKGROUND: Though 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. METHODS: Institution 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. RESULT: The 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. CONCLUSION: Sexual violence is a common phenomenon among the students. More detailed research has to be conducted to develop prevention and intervention strategies. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12914-017-0127-1) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.