Knowledge and attitude towards rape and child sexual abuse – a community-based cross-sectional study in Rural Tanzania

BMC Public Health

Research Article

Rose Mpembeni¹  Siriel Massawe²  Pia Axemo³  Projestine Muganyizi⁴  Muzdalifat Abeid⁴  Elisabeth Darj⁵ 

[1] Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences (MUHAS), P.O.Box 65117, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania;Department of Obstetrics/Gynecology, Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences (MUHAS), P.O.Box 65117, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania;Department of Women’s and Children’s Health, International Maternal and Child Health (IMCH), Uppsala University, SE-75185, Uppsala, Sweden;Department of Women’s and Children’s Health, International Maternal and Child Health (IMCH), Uppsala University, SE-75185, Uppsala, Sweden;Department of Obstetrics/Gynecology, Muhimbili University of Health and Allied Sciences (MUHAS), P.O.Box 65117, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania;Department of Women’s and Children’s Health, International Maternal and Child Health (IMCH), Uppsala University, SE-75185, Uppsala, Sweden;Department of Public Health and General Practice, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, P.O.Box 8905, Trondheim, Norway;

关键词: Attitude;    Child sexual abuse;    Community;    Knowledge;    Rape;    Sexual violence;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s12889-015-1757-7

 received in 2014-08-26, accepted in 2015-04-21,  发布年份 2015

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundViolence against women and children is globally recognized as a social and human rights concern. In Tanzania, sexual violence towards women and children is a public health problem. The aim of this study was to determine community knowledge of and attitudes towards rape and child sexual abuse, and assess associations between knowledge and attitudes and socio-demographic characteristics.MethodsA cross-sectional study was undertaken between May and June 2012. The study was conducted in the Kilombero and Ulanga rural districts in the Morogoro Region of Tanzania. Men and women aged 18–49 years were eligible for the study. Through a three-stage cluster sampling strategy, a household survey was conducted using a structured questionnaire. The questionnaire included socio-demographic characteristics, attitudes about gender roles and violence, and knowledge on health consequences of rape. Data were analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) software, version 21. Main outcome measures were knowledge of and attitudes towards sexual violence. Multivariate analyses were used to assess associations between socio-demographic characteristics and knowledge of and attitudes towards sexual violence.ResultsA total of 1,568 participants were interviewed. The majority (58.4%) of participants were women. Most (58.3%) of the women respondents had poor knowledge on sexual violence and 63.8% had accepting attitudes towards sexual violence. Those who were married were significantly more likely to have good knowledge on sexual violence compared to the divorced/separated group (AOR = 1.6 (95% CI: 1.1-2.2)) but less likely to have non-accepting attitudes towards sexual violence compared to the single group (AOR = 1.8 (95%CI: 1.4-2.3)). Sex of respondents, age, marital status and level of education were associated with knowledge and attitudes towards sexual violence.ConclusionsOur study showed that these rural communities have poor knowledge on sexual violence and have accepting attitudes towards sexual violence. Increasing age and higher education were associated with better knowledge and less accepting attitudes towards sexual violence. The findings have potentially important implications for interventions aimed at preventing violence. The results highlight the challenges associated with changing attitudes towards sexual violence, particularly as the highest levels of support for such violence were found among women.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© Abeid et al.; licensee BioMed Central. 2015