Epidemiology of Campus Sexual Assault Among University Women in Eswatini

Abstract

Sexual assault on university campuses has attracted growing attention, but there is little data available on the scope of the problem in Southern Africa. We sought to measure the prevalence of campus sexual assault among female university students at the University of Eswatini and describe the experience of survivors using a mixed-methods study design. Women were randomly sampled from a list of all full-time female university students provided by the office of the registrar, and participants completed a brief behavioral survey in a private study office using a tablet with computer-assisted self-interview software. Women who indicated experiences of sexual violence during the survey were invited to self-identify themselves to study staff to participate in a follow-up qualitative interview. We measured sexual assault using the Sexual Experiences Survey–Short Form Version (SES-SFV). We found that women in University were over 6 times more likely to report forced or coerced sex in the previous 12 months than has been previously reported in the general population. Sixty percent of participants reported experiencing an attempted or completed sexual assault in their lifetime, and a total of 38% reported an assault in the past 12 months. The vast majority (93%) of assailants were known to their victim, and the majority (56%) of perpetrators were romantic partners. The majority of participants had never disclosed their assault, and victim blaming and stigma emerged as highly salient themes during in-depth qualitative interviews. Food insecurity, losing a parent before age 21, and hazardous drinking were all significantly associated with experiencing sexual assault in the previous 12 months, as was experiencing a previous assault before the age of 18. To our knowledge, this is the first generalizable study of campus sexual assault prevalence conducted in the Southern African region.