Intimate partner violence victimization and associated factors among male and female university students in 22 countries in Africa, Asia and the Americas

Abstract

The study aimed at investigating the prevalence of intimate partner violence (IPV) and its associated factors among male and female university students in 22 countries in Africa, the Americas and Asia. In a cross-sectional questionnaire survey, data were collected from 16979 undergraduate university students, 49.3% male and 50.7% female, with an overall mean age of 21.8 years (SD=3.4). Of 7032 (41.9%) students who had been sexually active in the past 12 months, 16.3 % reported ever having experienced physical or sexual IPV, 15.4% among men and 17.2% among women, physical IPV was 11.3% among men and 10.4% among women, and the proportion of ever having experienced sexual IPV was 9.3% among men and 11.3% among women. In multivariate logistic regression analyses, among both men and women, sociodemographic factors (senior study year, living in a low or lower middle income country) and risk factors (history of childhood physical and sexual abuse, made someone pregnant or had been pregnant, having had two or more sexual partners in the past 12 months, current tobacco use and having PTSD symptoms) were associated with physical and/or sexual violence victimization. High burden of IPV was found and several factors identified that may help guide intervention efforts.