Gender-based violence and associated factors among private college female students in Dessie City, Ethiopia: mixed method study

INTRODUCTION: Violence against girls and young women, mostly those in educational settings, has been gaining increasing attention. School-based gender-based violence represents a serious obstacle. As a result, it would be a threat to the achievement of the sustainable development goals, strive for gender equality in all our programs, right from the planning stages, to make sure we are as equitable as possible. Little was studied to explore reasons, opinions, and perceptions towards gender-based violence. Also, studies that are conducted on private college female students are limited. Important evidence about underlining reasons for gender-based violence against private college students will be explored. Therefore, to assess the prevalence of gender-based violence and associated factors among Private college female students in Dessie City, Ethiopia, 2021. METHODS: A facility-based mixed method concurrent triangulation study design was conducted among 435 randomly selected Private college female students in Dessie City. Self-administered questionnaire and an in-depth interview were used to collect the data. The collected data were cleaned and entered into Epi data and analyzed using a statistical package for social science. Descriptive statistics were conducted and the results were reported using frequency, and percentile. Binary logistic regression was performed to identify associated factors. Adjusted odds ratios with 95% confidence intervals and p values < 0.05 were used to explain statistically significant associations. Qualitative data were transcribed, translated, and analyzed manually using thematic analysis. RESULTS: The study showed the prevalence of gender-based violence was 251 (62.6%) (CI 0.512–0.683) Private college female students in Dessie city Administration. age less than 20 years and 20–24 years, [AOR = 0.19, 95% CI (0.03–0.92)] and [AOR = 0.106, 95% CI (0.02–0.44)], tight family control, [AOR = 6.14, 95% CI (1.38–7.1)], family discussion on RH and related personal issue [AOR = 0.091, 95% CI (0.03–0.27)], Witnessed father abuse mother at childhood; [AOR = 4.04, 95% CI (1.36–12.1)], had drunkenness female or boyfriend; [AOR = 5.12, 95% CI (1.58–16.5)] had significant association with gender-based violence. CONCLUSIONS: In this study, the high prevalence of gender-based violence among Private college female students is higher as compared to others. This is because the life of young girls is being abandoned as a result of gender-based violence, such as dropout from their education, unwanted pregnancy, abortion, sexually transmitted infections, and psychological disturbance, which decreases the productivity of girls. This is totally against the strategy and consensus of universal education for women and girls and adolescent health stated in the sustainable development goal.