ABSTRACT
Objective
To analyze the existence of a possible association between exposure to sexual violence in childhood and a lower undergraduate students’ quality of life.
Methods
A total of 935 university students participated in the research and answered the following instruments: sexual abuse prevalence questionnaire, abbreviated life quality questionnaire (WHOQOL-bref), and a questionnaire involving sociodemographic issues and a history of clinical diseases. The chi-square association test and logistic regression analysis were used, having as the binary endpoint variable the life quality (lower and higher). In the final regression model, the sensitivity test was applied to identify the correctness among the cases observed with superior life quality and the specificity test applied to the cases observed with lower life quality. The overall efficiency percentage of the model was applied to a cutoff of 0.5.
Results
The majority of participants were: female (55.6%, 520), brown (52.3%, 489), single (58.4%, 546). They were at the average age of 21 years old (SD = ± 5) and average family income of R$ 3,875.00 (SD = ± 4,690.00). From logistic regression, it was observed association with inferior life quality: need for psychological counseling, being single, suffering sexual violence in childhood, not being Caucasian, practicing physical activity three times or more a week, being born in rural area and practicing religion.
Conclusion
The study showed that sexual abuse, even after many years, still has an association with inferior life quality of university students.
Keywords
Quality of life; students; child sexual abuse