Gender-besed violence among high school students in north west Ethiopia.

BACKGROUND

Gender-based violence exists in all societies and individual woman experience it in every social and economic group. Different studies in Africa have showed that there are significant percentages of females that have suffered from the violence. Most societies encourage manifestation of manliness through violence in workplace, among friends and in the community as a whole.

OBJECTIVE

The study tried to see the prevalence of Gender-based Violence and the various patterns and correlates of Gender-Based Violence among female high-school students, Northwest Ethiopia.

METHODOLOGY

This study is a cross--sectional study done on 367 female high--school students who were given self-administered questionnaires to assess the prevalence of gender-based violence against these students in Dabat High school.

RESULT

This study showed 11.4% of the students have started sexual intercourse and of these, 33.3% were raped cases. Twenty percent (20.4%) from the total of 367 students have survived attempted rape. In addition 44% of the students were sexually harassed. Among the study participants considerable proportion are mainly responsible for the housework. Around 8% of the students have undergone Female Genital Mutilation.

CONCLUSION

Generally, the prevalence of gender-based violence is high in Dabat High-School, Northwest Ethiopia and attention should be given by policy-makers and law enforcing bodies to adequately address the problem.