The Health Implication of Sexual Abuse on Female Students in Nigeria: A Case Study of Selected tertiary Institutions in Maiduguri, Borno State
Keywords:
sexual harassment, sexual abuse, health implication, Female studentsAbstract
Sexual violence is a common phenomenon and occurs worldwide with pernicious consequences particularly when it occurs to the young. Based on this, this study which takes the case of three tertiary institutions in Maiduguri, aims at determining the prevailing rate of rape, sexual harassment, and associated health implication in Nigeria. Cross sectional descriptive research design is adopted for the study. The population comprises all the female students in all the tertiary institutions in Maiduguri, Borno State. Purposive sampling technique is used to select three tertiary institutions in Maiduguri. Simple randon sampling is used to select three hundred female students from the three institutions. The mean age of the respondents is 21.8 years. Most of the respondents are single. Prevailing rate of rape is found to be relatively high, among young women who reported to have been raped. It is further gathered that majority of the students who have experienced sexual harassment never reported the culprits who are mostly lecturers. Also, report of rape is not found to correlate positively with the GHQ score of the respondents. In conclusion, the prevalence of rape and sexual harassment in Maiduguri is significantly high and is mainly perpetrated by known people to the victims. In view of these, policy should be formulated to address the issues of sexual harassment in schools and counselling services focusing on sexual harassment should be integrated into school health services.
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