What to know
- Presentation Day/Time: Thursday, April 24, 9:00–10:25 am
- Presenter: Mai Vang, DNP, BSN, EIS officer assigned to the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control, Division of Violence Prevention
What did we do?
- The nationally-representative 2022 Eswatini Violence Against Children and Youth Survey examined prevalence of sexual, physical, and emotional violence among persons aged 13–24 years.
- To address potential distress, direct support services were offered to participants meeting criteria, like recent violence disclosure or safety concerns.
- Despite eligibility for and availability of services, few accept. We aimed to identify characteristics associated with service acceptance or declination to better connect resources to those who need them most.
What did we find?
- Among 7,720 participants, 17.4% met ≥1 criteria and were eligible for direct service referral (17.5% females; 17.4% males).
- Of eligible participants, 17.8% of females and 18.8% of males accepted referral.
- Compared with participants who declined, a higher percentage of participants accepting referral had ever attempted suicide or displayed distress.
- Females accepting referral had a higher prevalence of opposing school corporal punishment or experiencing sexual violence than those who declined.
- Males accepting referral had a higher prevalence of living in urban areas or being unaware of community-based services than those who declined.
Why does it matter?
- These findings underscore the need for targeted strategies to increase service acceptance for youth with a history of violence or distress and inform broader violence response efforts.
***This presentation has updated data that will be shared at the EIS Conference.
Abstract Category: Global Health, Mental Health