The Prevalence of Intimate Partner Violence and Its Association With Adult Attachment Styles Among University of Nairobi Undergraduate Students

Abstract

Intimate partner violence (IPV) is one of the major alarming issues in public health recognized globally as an urgent matter fundamental to human rights violation. IPV and dating are found to be most common amongst early adolescence and increase towards early young adulthood. Media reports across the world and Kenyan media report high number of IPV among university learners that has led to murder, poor academic performance and psychological trauma. The severity of the problem has given rise to a large body of research that has attempted to find the variables associated with IPV to alleviate its occurrence but there is limited empirical evidence in relation to individual psychological factors such as attachment styles using attachment theory. The objective of this analytical cross-sectional study found out the prevalence of IPV and determined whether adult attachment styles, sociodemographic factors are associated with IPV among undergraduate students at University of Nairobi (UON). This study used quantitative data collection that used validated and standardized tools which are Adult Attachment Scale to measure attachment styles and WHO scale to measure IPV. The designed sociodemographic scale was used to measure sociodemographic factors. The data was collected among UON undergraduates studying at Main campus UON towers and Kenyatta National Hospital in Kenya, Nairobi between April and June 2024. Quantitative data was collected electronically using Kobo Collect, and analyzed using STATA version 17 that analyzed association of sociodemographic factors and attachment styles in relation to IPV using both bivariate and multi variate logistic analyses to show the outcomes. All analyses were conducted at 95% Confidence Interval (95% CI). For all statistical tests, a p value<0.05 indicate statistical significance. Of the 445 participants, majority were females by (61.3% ) compared to males (38.7%). In terms of age, higher proportion were between the age of 18-25 years old by 81.3%. The prevalence of IPV was 41.1%. IPV were found to be significantly associated with anxious attachment and avoidant attachment styles. Students with anxious attachment style were 4 times more likely to experience IPV compared those with secure attachment (p 0.00, OR 3.99, 95% CI; 2.4-6.7). Participants who reported to had avoidant attachment style were twice as likely to experience IPV as compared to secure attachment style (p 0.02, OR 2.15, 95% CI; 1.1-4.1). Smoking cigarette (AOR= 4.0, p = 0.038) and smoking marijuana (AOR = 2.4, p= 0.026) were all significantly related to ever experiencing IPV. Gender, age, and course did not have significant association with IPV