Peer-reviewed article
School violence, perceptions of safety and school attendance: results from a cross-sectional study in Rwanda and Uganda
Sarah Rachel Meyer, Gary Yu, Sabrina Hermosilla, Lindsay Stark ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001This study examined how school violence affects adolescent refugees in Rwanda and Uganda. Researchers surveyed 274 adolescents in a Rwandan refugee camp and 763 in Ugandan refugee settlements. Adolescents who experienced violence at school were significantly more likely to miss school, feel afraid, and feel unsafe at school in both countries. The impact was stronger for girls than boys.
Key points
- In Rwanda, school violence exposure was associated with 2.3 times higher odds of feeling unsafe and 3.3 times higher odds of missing school
- In Uganda, school violence exposure was associated with 2.3 times higher odds of missing school, 2.3 times higher odds of feeling fear, and 1.9 times higher odds of feeling unsafe
- Girls showed stronger associations between violence exposure and all three outcomes (attendance, fear, safety) in both countries
- Boys showed weaker or no significant associations with violence exposure in Rwanda, and only school attendance was significantly associated in Uganda
- The study is among the first to examine relationships between school violence and educational outcomes in conflict-affected adolescent populations
Limitations
This is a cross-sectional study, so causal relationships cannot be established; the direction of causality between school violence and attendance is unclear. The study cannot tell us about the specific types of violence experienced, perpetrators, or whether interventions to reduce school violence would improve attendance and safety perceptions.
Abstract
BACKGROUND: Adolescents displaced by conflict face a number of risks, and access to education has potential to have multiple protective aspects in humanitarian settings. Yet, the impact of violence experienced at school by adolescents in humanitarian contexts is poorly understood, especially in terms of impacts on educational outcomes. METHODS: A household survey of adolescents in a refugee camp in Rwanda (n=274) and in two refugee settlements in Uganda (n=763) was conducted. Multiple logistic regression models were used to assess the influence of violence experienced at school on school attendance, feelings of fear and feelings of safety at school. RESULTS: In multiple logistic regression models, adjusting for socio-demographic variables, exposure to school violence was significantly associated with feelings of safety at school (adjusted odds ratio (AOR)=2.29, 95% confidence interval (CI)=1.20-4.38) and days of school missed (AOR=3.28, 95% CI=1.54-7.01) in Rwanda. In Uganda, exposure to violence was significantly associated with all outcomes: school fear (AOR=2.26, 95% CI=1.48-3.44), school safety (AOR=1.90, 95% CI=1.23-2.92) and school attendance (AOR=2.39, 95% CI=1.52-3.74). Gender-stratified analyses indicated that in both contexts exposure to school violence is significantly associated with school attendance, school fear, and school safety for girls, but the association is weaker amongst boys (with experience of violence significantly associated with school attendance for boys in Uganda, but not for other outcomes and not in Rwanda). CONCLUSIONS: This study presents some initial and novel findings on the relationships between violence experienced at school and educational outcomes amongst adolescents displaced by conflict.