Israel Bekele, Wondosen Zewde and Abiru Neme
Introduction: Adolescent sexual abuse is one of the major problems of adolescent that affect their health and security. Specifically, as various (regional, national and global) studies indicate the prevalence of the problem in primary and secondary school environment as caused by different individual and contextual factors. But due to different reasons in Limmu Genet high school the problem of adolescent sexual abuse specifically its prevalence, type and determinant factors are not yet well stated and studied. Objective: The main objective of this study is to explore the prevalence, type and identify major determinant factors associated with adolescent sexual abuse of students in Limmu Genet high school. Methodology: The study was conducted and a quantitative research method was used to collect data about the prevalence, type and major factors associated with adolescent sexual abuse from 354 randomly selected high school students in Limmu Genet high school by sampling procedure in the school compound. The data collection was done by self-administered questionnaire that was analyzed with descriptive and explanatory statistics. Results: The result of this study revealed that sexual abuse is prevalent in the study area in the form of exposing adolescent to verbal sexual advances (32.4%) kissing adolescent in a socially unacceptable manner (29.1%), the combination of touching and fondling adolescent sexually (25.9%), making adolescent to look at somebody's genitals (22.7%), forcing to expose their genitals (18.3%) and other forms like discussing about sexual practices (16.5%). Conclusion: In conclusion, the result of this study revealed that the problem is prevalent (34.9%) in Limmu Genet high school. Also Marital status and monthly family income, factors associated with sexual abuse like alcohol drinking and chewing chat have statistically significance with sexual abuse (P<0.05). Recommendation: As a result of the abuse students may become emotionally disturbed, absence/shortage of education, etc. Therefore, measures should be taken against the abusers, by counseling services, gender club, student maladaptive behavior and others by school teachers.
