Childhood physical and sexual abuse, and adult health risk behaviours among university students from 24 countries in Africa, the Americas and Asia

Abstract

The goal of this study was to retrospectively estimate the prevalence of childhood physical abuse (CPA) and childhood sexual abuse (CSA) in relation to experience of adult violence, poor mental health, addictive behaviour and sexual risk behaviour among university students from 24 countries in Africa, the Americas and Asia. In a cross-sectional survey, data were collected from 18 404 undergraduate university students (mean age 20.7, SD = 2.9, age range of 16–30 years) from 24 countries. Overall, 5.0%, 2.6% and 1.2% of the students reported childhood physical abuse, childhood sexual abuse and childhood physical and sexual abuse, respectively. In the logistic regression models, adjusting for age, sex, study year, family wealth, and country, having experienced CPA and CSA was associated with increased odds of having any adult violence (physical and sexual partner violence victimisation. Having been in a physical fight, and weapon carrying), any poor mental health (post-traumatic stress disorder, depression symptoms and sleeping problems), addictive behaviour (tobacco use, binge drinking, frequent gambling and obesity) and sexual risk-taking was higher with a self-reported history of CPA and CSA.

Keywords:

• childhood physical abuse
• childhood sexual abuse
• adult violence
• addictive behaviour
• mental health
• sexual risk-taking
• university students
• multi-country

Acknowledgements

Partial funding for this study was provided by the South African Department of Higher Education. The following colleagues participated in this student health survey and contributed to the design and data collection and are considered co-authors (locations of universities in parentheses) Barbados: T. Alafia Samuels (Bridgetown); Cameroon: Jacques Philippe Tsala Tsala (Yaounde); China: Tony Yung and Xiaoyan Xu (Hong Kong and Chengdu); Colombia: Carolina Mantilla (Pamplona); Egypt: Alaa Abou-Zeid (Cairo); Grenada: Omowale Amuleru-Marshall (St. George); India: Krishna Mohan (Visakhapatnam); Indonesia: Indri Hapsari Susilowati (Jakarta); Ivory Coast: Issaka Tiembre (Abidjan); Jamaica: Caryl James (Kingston); Kyrgyzstan: Erkin M Mirrakhimov (Bishkek); Laos: Vanphanom Sychareun (Vientiane); Madagascar: Onya H Rahamefy (Antananarivo); Mauritius: Hemant Kumar Kassean (Réduit, Moka); Namibia: Pempelani Mufune (Windhoek); Nigeria: Solu Olowu (Ile-Ife); Philippines: Alice Ferrer (Miagao); Russia: Alexander Gasparishvili (Moscow); Singapore: Mee Lian Wong (Singapore); South Africa: Tholene Sodi (Polokwane); Thailand: Tawatchai Apidechkul (Chiang Rai); Turkey: Neslihan Keser Özcan (Istanbul); Tunisia: Hajer Aounallah-Skhiri (Tunis); Venezuela: Yajaira M Bastardo (Caracas).