Contexts of Violence in Adolescence Cohort Study (CoVAC)

全球超过三分之一的成年女性经历过亲密伴侣的身体或性暴力。我们知道，男女成年后亲密伴侣遭受暴力的风险都与童年和青春期的暴力经历有关。然而，人们对为什么会出现这种情况知之甚少，特别是在低收入和中等收入国家。大多数关于原因的研究来自北美和欧洲，那里儿童和青少年接触暴力的基本模式与包括乌干达在内的许多中低收入国家不同。重要的是要研究为什么儿童和青少年暴力与成年暴力中的亲密伴侣暴力有关，以便我们能够找出如何在这些时间段更有效地预防暴力。我们的研究有三个目标。首先是更好地了解乌干达这个低收入国家的青少年以前接触暴力的模式。第二个目标是更详细地了解在青春期早期接触哪些类型的暴力与青春期后期和青春期的暴力有关。第三是探索这些关联是如何发生的以及为什么会发生，以期了解个体的特征以及个体所处的环境的特征如何可能放大或中断这些关联。为了做到这一点，我们打算随着时间的推移跟踪3438名青少年。我们计划使用这两种调查方法的组合，并进行更深入的采访和观察，以了解参与者对暴力和乌干达成长经历的看法和做法。我们已经在2014年对青少年、他们的老师和他们的一些照顾者进行了一次调查，当时青少年的年龄在11-14岁之间。我们将在2018年进行第二次调查，届时青少年的年龄为15-18岁，并在2021年进行第三次调查，届时他们将达到18-21岁。在我们的调查中，我们询问了关于不同形式暴力的使用和体验、参与者的心理健康以及参与者与不同类型的人的关系(包括浪漫关系)的详细问题。我们将收集参与者的家庭、学校和其他环境的广泛数据，并分析这些环境如何支持非暴力行为和关系的发展。我们的定性研究将涉及大约36名女孩和男孩的深入研究，他们在2014年的调查中报告了不同的暴力经历，当时他们11-14岁，他们也将从2018年到2021年接受跟踪。我们将与这些核心参与者单独交谈，并与朋友团体交谈，并在参与者发现自己的学校和社区及其周围进行观察。通过与这些年轻人建立详细的传记案例研究，我们希望深入了解青少年如何经历不同形式的暴力，以及他们的社会关系和网络如何影响他们的安全以及对暴力的看法和做法。除了与这一核心群体合作外，我们还将从更广泛的青年、学校工作人员、家长、社区成员和官员以及更广泛的政治和社会经济背景中收集数据，以分析青年生活的环境如何增加风险或帮助保护青年免受暴力侵害。这项研究将提高对我们可以针对哪些类型的机制来帮助有效防止青春期和成年期暴力的理解。我们的发现将是新的和有趣的，因为在这个年龄段进行的纵向研究很少，在低收入国家环境中进行的更少。我们计划直接利用这些结果来开发乌干达的方案。

More than one in three adult women globally have experienced physical or sexual violence by their intimate partner. We know that risk of intimate partner violence in adulthood for both women and men is linked to childhood and adolescent experiences of violence. However, less is known about why this is, particularly in low and middle-income countries. Most research on why comes from North America and Europe, where the basic patterns of childhood and adolescent violence exposure are different to many low and middle income country settings, including Uganda.It is important to study why violence in childhood and adolescence and intimate partner violence in adulthood violence are linked so that we can figure out how to more effectively prevent violence across these time periods. Our study has three goals. The first is to get a better understanding of the patterns of prior violence exposure among young adolescents in Uganda, a low-income country setting. The second goal is to understand in more detail which types of violence exposure in early adolescence are associated with violence in later adolescence and young adulthood. The third is to explore how and why these associations occur, with a view to understanding how both characteristics of the individual, and characteristics of the contexts in which individuals find themselves, might amplify or interrupt these associations.In order to do this, we are intending to follow 3438 young adolescents over time. We plan to use a mixture of both survey methods with more in-depth interviews and observations to understand participants' views and practices in relation to violence and experiences of growing up in Uganda.We have already done one survey with young adolescents, their teachers and some of their caregivers in 2014, when the adolescents were aged 11-14 years. We will do a second survey in 2018, when the adolescents are aged 15-18 years, and a third survey in 2021 when they are 18-21 years. In our survey, we ask detailed questions about the use and experience of different forms of violence, the mental health of our participants, and about participants' relationships with different types of people, including romantic relationships. We will gather extensive data on participants' family, school, and other contexts where they spend time, and will analyse how these contexts can support the development of non-violent behaviour and relationships over time.Our qualitative study will involve in-depth work with a sub-sample of about 36 girls and boys, who reported varying experiences of violence in the 2014 survey, when they were 11-14 years, and who will also be followed up over time from 2018 until 2021. We will speak with these core participants individually, and with groups of friends, and conduct observations in and around the schools and communities where participants find themselves. Through building detailed biographical case studies with these young people, we hope to gain insight into how adolescents experience different forms of violence, and the ways in which their social relationships and networks influence their safety and perspectives and practices on violence. As well as working with this core group, we will collect data from a broader sample of young people, school staff, parents, community members and officials, as well as the broader political and socio-economic landscape, in order to analyse the ways in which the contexts in which young people live enhance risks or help protect young people from violence. This research will improve understanding of what types of mechanisms we can target to help effectively prevent violence across adolescence and into adulthood. Our findings will be new and interesting because very few longitudinal studies have been conducted across this age group, and even fewer in low income country settings. We plan to use these results directly to develop programming in Uganda.