Abstract:
Background: Child sex abuse is a severe violate of fundamental human rights that has numerous
negative consequence including physical, psychological and is a huge global public health issue.
Despite this fact, which poses a serious risk to public health and affects millions of children
worldwide each year, it is Ethiopia's most overlooked and unreported form of violence. Thus, the
importance of this study is to fill that gap. Strategy development, its implementation, problem
solving are the outcomes of this study.
Objective: This study was aimed to assess the magnitude of child sexual abuse and associated
factors among high school female students in Arba Minch Zuria Woreda (AZW), Southern
Ethiopia.
Methods: An institutional-based cross-sectional study was conducted among 421 randomly
selected female high school students in Arba Minch Zuria Woreda between December 20, 2022
to January 20, 2023. Stratified and Multi stage sampling technique was used to select participants
from selected high schools. A pretested, self-administered questionnaire was used, and the data
was entered using Epidata version 4.6 and analyzed using SPSS (statically package for social
science) version 27. Bivariate and multivariate analyses were carried out to identify factors
associated with Sexual abuse using binary logistic regression. Statistical significance was set at a
p-value of less than 0.05.
Result. The magnitude of child sexual abuse among female high school students in the study
area was 186 (44.9 %( 95% CI: 40.6-50.2). Students who slept alone at home (AOR = 4.93(95%
CI: 1.46-16.67); having no open discussions with their parents (AOR=4.49(95% CI: 1.62-12.47);
drinking alcohol (AOR=3.3(95% CI: 1.32-8.28); and having friends who drink alcohol or chew
khat (AOR=6.14(95% CI: 1.58 - 23.9) were the identified factors associated with child sexual
abuse.
Conclusion. This study found a high level of child sexual abuse in female high school students
in Arbaminch Zuria Woreda. Factor significantly associated with child sexual abuse in this study
were having no open discussion with parents, drinking alcohol, sleeping alone at home, and
having friends who drink alcohol and chew khat. Therefore, High schools must collaborate with
parents to develop a strategy to reduce the magnitude of the problem while focusing on the identified factors
Description:
MAGNITUDE OF CHILD SEXUAL ABUSE AND ASSOCIATED
FACTORS AMONG HIGH SCHOOL FEMALE STUDENTS IN ARBA
MINCH ZURIA WOREDA, SOUTHERN ETHIOPIA, 202
