Socio-demographic characteristics
A total of 419 respondents participated in the study, making the response rate 99%. A large proportion of the study subjects, 57.5 %, were females, and 56.3% were Oromo’s. Nearly half, 50.4% of the study participants were followers of Orthodox Christianity. In terms of residence, almost of the respondents, 93.6%, were from Jimma Town. Similarly, most of the study subjects (92.6%) fell in the age range of 15-19 years while the rest (7.4%) fell in the younger age category of 10-14 years. In terms of educational status, 53.9 % of the respondents were attending grade 9 while 46.1 % were from grade 10. Most of the respondents (93.6%) were residents of Jimma Town, whereas only 6.4 came from outside the town. Findings related to educational performance indicate that 31.5 % had very good result followed by who had good result, accounting for 21.7 %. Respondents with satisfactory and poor educational performance accounted for 17.7 and 3.6 % respectively. Regarding marital status or sexual relationships, the study has shown that a large majority (72.1%) were single, followed by those students who had boyfriend or girlfriend, accounting for ( 22.4 %). Married students and co-ha biting ones accounted for 4.1 and 1.4 % respectively. The other important socio-demographic characteristics investigated were parental relationships and status. Accordingly, large majorities (77.8%) were from married and living together family, while respondents from broken families due to divorce and deceased partner accounted for 11.2% and 8.15% respectively. Respondents with orphan status accounted for 2.9 %. In terms of parental educational status, the findings show that a large majority (82.6%) had literate father, while only 6.2 % had illiterate father. Among the literate fathers, 38.25 had attained above grade 12. Those who attained grades 11 to 12, 9 to 10 and 1 to 8 accounted for 22.8, 22.5, and 16. 5 % respectively. Similarly, a large majority (82.6%) had literate mothers whereas only 8.1 % had illiterate mothers. Among the literate mothers, a large proportion (46.5%) attained grades 9 to 10, followed by those who attained grades 1 to 8, accounting for 21.4 %. Those mothers who attained above grade 12 and 11 to 12 grades accounted for 20.5 and 11.6 % respectively. Regarding provision of money for basic needs, a large majority (73.7%) reported that they got it, while 26.3 % reported lack of such support. (See Table 1)
The prevalence of violence against children
The study indicates that 262 or 62.5% of the school children living in Jimma Town had experienced some form of violence in their life; 12.9%, 7.9%, 46.5% encountered mild sexual violence, severe sexual violence and mild physical violence respectively. Children who had faced severe physical violence accounted for 14.1%. Respondents’ who had encountered emotional or psychological violence accounted for 37%. (See Table 2)
Children history of substance use and the attributes of family behaviors
Pertaining to parental relationships and interactions, the majority of the school children (66.3%) did not have free discussion on reproductive health issues with their parents or guardians. As to the level of family control, a little bit more than half of the respondents (51.6%), 42% and 6.4% experienced tight, moderate and loose family control. The majority (72.6%) did not witness parental conflict at home. With regard to substance use, the study has shown that most of the school children (88.8%) did not chew Chat. Similarly, most of the respondents (94%) did not smoke cigarettes at all. A large majority 82.3%) had never consumed alcohol while 17.7% of the respondents had already used alcohol. The use of illegal drugs such as hashish and marijuana was even more restricted among school children as 95.2% did not use it at all.(Table 3)
Perpetrators of Violence against Children and Related Variables
Alarmingly enough, the three highest perpetrators of physical violence against children were found to be boyfriend/girlfriend, teachers, and family members, accounting for 28.3, 23.3 and 22.2 respectively. With regard to emotional or psychological violence, the leading perpetrators were teachers, boyfriend/girlfriend and family members, accounting for 38%, 21.4, and 16.7 respectively. Similarly, the highest perpetrators of sexual violence were boyfriend/girlfriend, teachers, and family members, accounting for 35.3%, 25.9% and 14.4% respectively. A large proportion of the violence against children (41%) occurred during the daytime, while 28 % was perpetrated at night. Regarding spots of violence, school, streets and home account for 34.5%, 32.5% and 24%, respectively. The majority of school children (66.5%) put the blame on the perpetrators of violence, while 15% and 14.5% took the blame themselves and attributed it to the community, respectively. Gender difference was not considered important in exposing children to violence by 58% of the respondents. Regarding the interpersonal relationships between the school children and their parents/guardians, 58.9% had positive interactions most of the time; 64.7% always accepted and followed their advice and guidance, while 16.9% sometimes rejected them. The majority (65.2%) always had positive and smooth interactions with their school teachers; only 9.8% had negative and rocky relationships. (See Table 4)
Existing prevention mechanisms of violence
In terms of awareness, the majority (69.2%) claimed to have known some mechanisms that would protect them from violence. The three most important mechanisms included being disciplined and respectful to others; knowing where, with whom and when to move; and knowing the behavior of other person before establishing close relationships,accounting for 39.3%, 25.9%, and 23.8%, respectively. As first res ponders,48.4% mentioned family members, while any person in the nearby and friends were mentioned by 18.1% and 15.5%, respectively. A large proportion (57.3%) depended on strict rules and regulations to be protected from violence at school, followed by parents and teacher’s committee, mentioned by 20% of the respondents. In residential areas, 49.9%, 25.1% and 21.7% sought guarantee from patrolling police, community leaders and Kebele militia force, respectively. A large majority (81.6%) indicated that they had obtained advice from their parents or guardians as to how they could protect themselves from violence. (See table 5)
Factors Associated with Violence
First, bi variate logistic regressions were done to identify candidate variables. From this step, 14 variables were subjected to be candidate using P-value of <0.25. Those were parental relationship (P-0.005), gender (P-0.076), child’s achievement (P-0.116), mother’s educational status (P-0.171), father’s educational status (P-0.001), witnessing parental conflict (P-0.001), family control (P-0.050), Ever Kchat chewing (P-0.001), ever drunk alcohol (P-0.000), interaction with parents/guardian (P-0.001), reaction to parents advice (P-0.003), interaction with teachers (P-0.131), money gift from family (P-0.001), and educational status of the child (grade) (P-0.176). Out of these candidates, only five variables were become independent and significantly associated factors that affect occurrence of violence among school children. Those were fathers’ educational status (P-0.021), money gift from family (P-0.005), witnessing parental conflict (P-0.007), ever drunk any alcohol (P-0.034), and interaction with parents (P-0.006).
In the multi-variable logistic regression analysis; father’s educational status, money gift from the family, witnessing family conflict, ever drunk alcohol and interaction with parents were independent predictors of violence against children. The odds of being experiencing violence among children borne from illiterate fathers was three times more likely than children born from literate fathers [AOR=2.827, 95% CI: (1.173, 6.814)]. Children who did not have access to money as a gift from family were two times more likely to be exposed for violence than their counterparts [AOR=2.345,95% CI:(1.297,4.239)]. Children who witnessed family conflict in the home had 54% of probability to face violence than their counterparts [AOR=0.465, 95% CI: (0.266, 0.813)]. In the other hand, children who ever drunk alcohol had 53% of probability to experience violence than their counterparts [AOR=0.476, CI: (0.234, 0.945)]. More over, children who occasional disagreed and quarreled with their family or guardian had 61% of probability to be violated than those most of the time had positive interactions [AOR=0.393, 95% CI: (0.201, 0.768)].(See Table 6)