Intimate partner violence among unmarried young women (18-24 years) in urban communities, Ibadan, Nigeria.

Objectives: Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a global health problem that affects more than one-third of women globally. Young women who experience IPV face the same consequences as older women. Previous studies on IPV have not studies young women exclusively, thus, we aimed to report the prevalence of IPV and predictors among young women in Ibadan, Nigeria.

Methods: A community-based cross-sectional survey, using multistage cluster technique was conducted to determine the past-year prevalence of IPV among unmarried young women (n=736) from 20 communities in five Local Government Areas in Ibadan, Nigeria. The independent variables were respondents and their partners' background information. Dependent variables were experience of physical, sexual, psychological and any IPV. Data were analysed using descriptive statistics and binary logistic regression (α_0.05).

Results: Psychological IPV was the most prevalent form of IPV (50.1 %). Prevalence of any IPV was 56.3 %. At the bivariate level, having children, acceptance of IPV, ever had sex, age at first sex, experience at sexual debut, partners being with other women while being with the respondents, partners alcohol use, and partners witness of abuse as a child were significantly associated with IPV. However, only acceptance of IPV, experience at sexual debut, and partners being with other women while being with the respondents remained significant at the multivariate level.

Conclusions: IPV is a common occurrence among young women. Both individual and partners characteristics, especially acceptance of IPV contribute significantly to experience of IPV among young women. Hence, interventions targeted at reduction of IPV acceptance will greatly reduce the prevalence of IPV.