Violence against children and self-esteem among secondary school adolescents in Zanzibar
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Date
2024
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Kairuki University
Abstract
Background: Violence against children comprise all forms of violence against people
under 18 years old, whether perpetrated by parents or other caregivers, peers,
romantic partners, or strangers. It’s a global concern and approximately one in two
children aged 2 to 17 years across the world, experience violence each year which has
life lifelong impact on the health and wellbeing of children according to WHO.
Objectives: The broad objective was to determine the magnitude and specific types of
violence against the children as well as to assess the level of self-esteem and the
association with violence against the children among secondary school adolescents in
Maghrib-B district in Zanzibar.
Methods: This was a cross-sectional study conducted among secondary school
adolescents. Socio-demographic characteristics were collected using a structured
questionnaire. Assessment of different forms of violence such as physical, emotional,
negligent and sexual abuse was conducted using a self-administered questionnaire.
The level of self-esteem was assessed using Rosenberg scale. Data was analysed using
Statistical Package for Social Sciences version 25. Descriptive statistics were used to
summarize the data, while Chi-square test was used to determine the association
between the level of self-esteem and violence against the children. A p-value of less or
equal to 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Then Paired sample T test was
used to compare means of level of self-esteem between student in public and private
secondary schools.
Results: A total of 352 participants were enrolled in the study. The magnitude of
violence against children was noted among 252 (71.6%), regarding the type of
violence against children emotional abuse was the prevalent in 225 963.9 %); followed
by physical abuse in 184 (47.7 %), neglect abuse in 96 (27.3 %) and sexual abuse in
67 (19%). On the other hand the majority of participants had medium level of self
esteem in 256 (72.75 %) of participants. Low self-esteem was observed in 80 (22.7 %)
of participants. In addition, there was significant (p-value <0.05) association between
emotional (χ2 = 15.5, p-value =0.01), physical (χ2=8.9, p-value = 0.04), sexual (χ2=
9.2, p-value =0.01), negligent (χ2 =15.1, p-value = 0.001) and low self-esteem.
Participants from public schools had elevated mean self-esteem score (20.9 ± 4)
compared to those from private schools (17.03 ± 3.6). Moreover, there was a trend
towards low self-esteem of participants from private schools compared to those from
public schools and the difference was statistically significant (p-value=0.001, T=3.8).
Conclusions: The study found that secondary school adolescents in Maghrib-B district
in Zanzibar experience average levels of violence against children, with emotional and
physical abuse being the most common. Low self-esteem was significantly associated
with VAC. Also, the result show participants from private schools have low self-esteem
compared to those from the public schools.
Description
A dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science in Public Health
Keywords
Violence Against Children, self – esteem, secondary school adolescents
Citation
Said, Fatma I., 2024. Violence against children and self-esteem among secondary school adolescents in Zanzibar. Kairuki University