Peer-reviewed article
Community Insights on Violence against Children: Awareness, Engagement, and Predictive Variables in the Context of Hawassa City Administration
Addis Zena Birru, Fetehawek Fantahun Debebe ·
Summary
Written by AI, not yet AICS's view · claude-haiku-4-5-20251001This study examined community awareness and engagement regarding violence against children in Hawassa City, Ethiopia, using a mixed-methods approach with 391 survey respondents, interviews, and focus groups. While all respondents were aware of violence against children and 71% knew what measures to take, only 47% had actually taken action to address it, indicating a significant gap between knowledge and practice. Community engagement in addressing violence was low overall, with attitudes toward violence, age, community policing involvement, and community roles identified as key predictors. The study identified multiple community-based protection structures including family systems, religious institutions, schools, and NGOs.
Key points
- 100% of respondents were aware of violence against children, with 57.3% identifying sexual abuse first
- 71.4% of respondents were well informed about measures to address violence against children, but only 47.3% had actually taken such measures
- Community engagement level was low with an average mean score of 2.19 on a relevant scale
- Attitudes toward violence, age, community policing engagement, and role in community structures significantly predicted engagement levels
- Multiple community-based protection mechanisms exist but have identified gaps between awareness and active engagement
Limitations
This is a cross-sectional study conducted only in Hawassa City Administration, so findings cannot be generalised to rural areas or other regions of Ethiopia. The study measures self-reported awareness and engagement, which may not reflect actual protective behaviours or outcomes for children experiencing violence.
Abstract
This study seeks to investigate community insights on violence against children, focusing on awareness, involvement, and predicting factors within the Hawassa City Administration in Ethiopia. The study employed a cross-sectional explanatory research design, incorporating a mixed-methods approach. Three hundred ninety-one respondents participated in this study, along with seven individuals for in-depth interviews and sixteen participants in focus groups. A single population proportion formula was employed to determine sample size, and a systematic sampling procedure was utilized to select participants from the chosen kebeles. Descriptive and inferential statistics were utilized to analyze the quantitative data. The qualitative data were analyzed via the thematic analysis method. The study results revealed that all respondents are aware of violence against children; for 57.3% of the respondents, sexual abuse comes to their mind first when they think of violence against children. While 71.4% of the respondents are well informed on measures they can take to address violence against children, only 47.3% of the respondents have the experience of taking measures to address violence against children. The average mean score of 2.19 indicates that the community's level of engagement in addressing violence against children is low. The analysis identified key predictors of community engagement: attitude toward violence against children (β = -.244, t(-4.286), p < 0.05), age (β = -.223, t(-3.997), p < 0.05), habit of working with community policing (β = -.220, t(-3.931), p < 0.05), and role in the existing community structure (β =.178, t(3.135), p < 0.05). The study identified various community-based protection structures, including family systems, religious institutions, educational institutions, community policing services, community-based organizations, non-governmental organizations, governmental organizations, and legal frameworks. These findings suggest the need for strengthening community-based protection mechanisms while addressing the identified gaps between awareness and active engagement in child violence protection