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Child labor and sexual assault among girls in Maiduguri, Nigeria
Author(s) -
Audu Bala,
Geidam Ado,
Jarma Hajara
Publication year - 2009
Publication title -
international journal of gynecology and obstetrics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.895
H-Index - 97
eISSN - 1879-3479
pISSN - 0020-7292
DOI - 10.1016/j.ijgo.2008.09.007
Subject(s) - sexual assault , medicine , demography , psychology , poison control , injury prevention , medical emergency , sociology
Abstract Objective To determine the relationship between child labor and sexual assault among girls in Maiduguri, Nigeria. Methods Face‐to‐face interview using a validated questionnaire of a randomly selected sample of employed girls. Results Out of 350 girls, 316 were successfully interviewed for a response rate of 90.3%. Mean age of the girls was 14.9 ± 2.3 years and mean workday was 8.5 ± 3.8 hours/day. In 33.4% of cases the girls had no formal education, and 78.5% were not currently going to school. The sexual assault rate was 77.7%, and in 38.6% of cases the assailant was a customer. Sexual assault was more likely in girls who were younger than 12 years (OR 3.54; 95% CI, 1.38–9.14), had no formal education (OR 4.80; 95% CI, 1.63–14.16), worked for more than 8 hours/day (OR 4.43; 95% CI, 1.60–12.30), or had 2 or more jobs (OR 16.09; 95% CI, 1.20–61.70). Conclusion To reduce the risk of sexual assault, if girls are employed they should be older, work for limited hours, and not have more than one job at a time.