Sexual harassment in public transport among female students at the Federal university of technology Akure, Nigeria

ABSTRACT

Background: Every day females experience different types of sexual harassment while using public transportation worldwide. Objective: This study aims to determine the prevalence of sexual harassment amongst female students who travel by public transportation at the Federal University of Technology Akure (FUTA) Nigeria. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional descriptive study. Data was collected using electronic questionnaires and analyzed with IBM SPSS Statistics version 21. Frequencies and percentages were used for data summary. Association between variables was determined using Chi Square test. Statistical significance was a p-value < 0.05. Results: Ninety-three percent of female students in FUTA had experienced sexual harassment. Among those who had experienced sexual harassment, 98.4% were single, 81.5% lived off campus, 79.0% used public bus, 45.4% commuted daily, 84.7% was in an overcrowded vehicle and 52.9% was in the evening. There was a significant association between sexual harassment and marital status (p = 0.033), place of residence (p = 0.019), mode of public transportation (p = 0.014), time of travel (p = 0.018). Verbal sexual harassment was most prevalent (91.1%), followed by physical sexual harassment (87.6%) and non-verbal sexual harassment (82%). Conclusion: This study found a high prevalence of sexual harassment among female university students in FUTA using public transportation, which occurs in a variety of scenarios, particularly in crowded vehicles during rush hour