Forms and determinants of sexual abuse among female child hawkers in Uyo, Nigeria

Background: Female hawkers are exposed to numerous hazards including sexual abuse. This study aimed at assessing the prevalence, forms and determinants of sexual abuse among female child hawkers in Uyo, Nigeria. Methods: This was a cross-sectional descriptive study carried out among female child hawkers in Uyo, Nigeria. Data was collected using an interviewer-administered structured questionnaire and was analyzed with IBM SPSS Statistics 20.0 software. Level of significance was set at 0.05. Result: A total of 172 respondents participated in the study. The mean age was 12.9±2.3 years. School dropout rate was 11.6% among respondents. Commonest reasons for hawking included family support (66.8%), feeding (22.1%) and generating school fees (11.1%). Prevalence of any form of sexual abuse was 76.2%. Forms of sexual abuse reported included verbal abuse (54.1%), inappropriate touching (56.4%), kissing (14.5%), intercourse due to enticement (18.0%) and rape (12.2%). The commonest reason for sexual act among those enticed was monetary gains, (64.5%). Consequences of sexual abuse included STI (13.5%), pregnancy (5.8%) and abortion (5.8%) respectively. Predictors of any form of sexual abuse included being aged 14-17 years (OR =14.70, 95%CI=2.05-105.14, p=0.007), being a dropout (OR=7.37, 95%CI=2.21-24.59, p=0.001) and being from social class V (OR=23.44, 95%CI=1.13-401.67, p=0.031). Conclusion: There was high prevalence of sexual abuse ranging from inappropriate touching to rape. Predictors of sexual abuse included age, being a dropout and of low socio economic class. Enlightenment campaigns on risks of female child hawking, establishment of skill acquisition centres and free education to secondary level are advocated

Risk factors associated with sexual violence towards girls in Swaziland

Objective:To explore risk factors for sexual violence in childhood in a nationally representative sample of females aged 13 to 24 years in Swaziland. Methods During a household survey respondents were asked to report any experiences of sexual violence before the age of 18 years. The association between childhood sexual violence and several potential demographic and social risk factors was explored through bivariate and multivariate logistic regression. Findings Participants totalled 1244. Compared with respondents who had been close to their biological mothers as children; those who had not been close to her had higher odds of having experienced sexual violence (crude odds ratio; COR: 1.89; 95CI: 1.14-3.14); as did those who had had no relationship with her at all (COR: 1.93; 95CI: 1.34-2.80). In addition; greater odds of childhood sexual violence were noted among respondents who were not attending school at the time of the survey (COR: 2.26; 95CI: 1.70-3.01); who were emotionally abused as children (COR: 2.04; 95CI: 1.50-2.79); and who knew of another child who had been sexually assaulted (COR: 1.77; 95CI: 1.31-2.40) or was having sex with a teacher (COR: 2.07; 95CI: 1.59-2.69). Childhood sexual violence was positively associated with the number of people the respondent had lived with at any one time (COR: 1.03; 95CI: 1.01-1.06). Conclusion Inadequate supervision or guidance and an unstable environment put girls at risk of sexual violence. Greater educational opportunities and an improved mother-daughter relationship could help prevent it