Physical, psychological, academic, and sexual abuse of university students in five Latin American countries: characteristics and association with student satisfaction: a cross-sectional study

Introduction

Studying in higher educational institutions is a rigorous and demanding process. During this period students face many challenges; however, they sometimes come across additional obstacles that they should not be facing. The most prevalent of these is abuse. Abuse impacts academic performance and the sense of satisfaction students feel towards their universities. Multiple studies have demonstrated this. In one such study that was conducted on medical students in Peru, it was concluded that abuse could have consequences for students, their academic performance and, even their future as professionals.¹ However, these are not the only negative consequences, as other studies have shown that the abuse of university students is associated with Burnout syndrome,² alcohol consumption,³ and post-traumatic stress.⁴

These consequences shed light on the importance of this issue, since university students are frequently subjected to various forms of psychological, physical, academic, and sexual abuse, as evidenced by a study conducted at the University of Manizales-Colombia, where 71% of the students faced at least one type of abuse.⁵ Another study conducted at the Universidad Nacional San Luis Gonzaga de Ica-Perú showed that the most frequent type of abuse was psychological (97%), followed by academic (87%), physical (63%), and sexual (21%).⁶ These types of abuse are also correlated with overall satisfaction with the university. In Mexico, teachers' treatment of their students is reported to be the most important factor in any evaluation of their work.⁷

The treatment of students seems to be more prevalent in developing countries. Reports from UK show that the quality of teaching, organization, and management are the most important factors in determining a student’s satisfaction.⁸ A study conducted in Spain showed that teaching, academic reputation, sports activities, and international programs are the most influential variables in student satisfaction.⁹ However, in Latin America the context is different from that of developed countries, which can influence students’ decision to stay in college.¹⁰ Therefore, the objective of this research is to characterize the types of abuse experienced among university students across five Latin American countries and its association with student satisfaction.

Methods

Results

3500 people were invited to take part in the project. Of these, 800 did not meet the inclusion criteria and were withdrawn during quality control. Of the remainder, 559 participants who met the inclusion criteria but did not complete the questionnaire were withdrawn. 2,141 students surveyed in Latin America, the highest percentages of dissatisfaction were found for the activities related to “undergraduate research” category of the survey: 12% very dissatisfied and 18% dissatisfied. Percentages of students who were dissatisfied with “agreements” were as follows: 10% very dissatisfied and 22% dissatisfied, and dissatisfaction with “logistics of their university” accounted for 9% (very dissatisfied) and 18% (dissatisfied) (Figure 1). The full results of the survey can be found under Underlying data.³⁹

Figure 1. Percentages of satisfaction of university students corresponding to the four aspects of the education they receive in five Latin American countries.

The box and whiskers charts show that the median dissatisfaction score was higher than the satisfaction score in all four cases of type of abuse experienced: psychological (Figure 2A), physical (Figure 2B), academic (Figure 2C), and sexual (Figure 2D).

Figure 2. Box and whiskers charts of university students' dissatisfaction with four aspects of the education they receive in five Latin American countries.

Note: The higher the score, the more abuse.

Multivariate regression analysis showed that the older the person, the more dissatisfaction was felt with “logistics” (aPR: 1.02; 95% CI: 1.00-1.04; p-value: 0.014); moreover, those in the upper tertile level of the section of students who perceived sexual abuse were more dissatisfied with the “teaching provided by universities” (aPR: 1.23; 95% CI: 1.00-1.52; p-value: 0.048) (Table 1).

In another multivariate analysis, it was found that those who felt the greatest sense of dissatisfaction with the university agreements also belonged to the top-third segment of those who perceived sexual abuse (aPR: 1.16; 95% CI: 1.03-1.32; p-value: 0.016), and students in the country of Panama were less dissatisfied with “the agreements” (aPR: 0.70; 95% CI: 0.66-0.073; p-value <0.001). Students from Colombia (aPR: 0.08; 95% CI: 0.01-0.59; p-value: 0.014) and Panama (aPR: 0.57; 95% CI: 0.52-0.64; p-value <0.001) were least dissatisfied with “the research.” Both models were adjusted for other types of abuse, sex, age, type of university, and location of the respondent (Table 2).

Discussion

The abuse faced by university students is an alarming issue worldwide. Its high prevalence is recorded by many studies. One study, which was conducted among university students across three medical schools in Thailand, found that 63% of students reported they had experienced some form of abuse at university.¹¹ The issue has gained greater importance following the increased media exposure of gender-based discrimination.¹² It must be remembered that abuse has different devastating consequences on students’ lives such as, hampered academic performance,^1,13 the consumption of harmful substances,³ affects on health,^2,4 and affects on their decisions regarding their future professional training.¹⁴

The present study reveals that the various types of abuse (physical, psychological, academic, and sexual) are directly related to the degree of satisfaction perceived by university students in their higher education centers. These findings have been corroborated by similar studies and suggest a growing issue that cannot go unnoticed.^15–19 This leads us to believe that interventions are needed to mitigate abuse and its consequences, so that student welfare can be improved, and students can get the most out of the learning process.

On the other hand, this research found that a higher degree of dissatisfaction was associated with the agreements that each university offers to their students to improve their education as well as the opportunities in terms of undergraduate research. This corroborates a study conducted in higher education institutions across the Toluca Valley, which found that students in public universities show less satisfaction with the university agreements offered to them by their universities in terms of job opportunities or educational institutions, as opposed to students in private higher education institutions.²⁰ Another study conducted at the University of Castile in Spain showed that student satisfaction was related to “the agreements” that provided opportunities for student exchange programs in order to strengthen their university experience.⁹ In other studies, it was not uncommon for universities in Latin American countries to account for low scientific production by medical students due to the lack of specific strategies to promote undergraduate research.²¹ This is important because university quality is reduced when they do not offer agreements with other universities, and there are few opportunities to carry out research training activities.^22–24

In addition, students who were dissatisfied with “teaching” and with “the agreements” also had a greater perception of sexual abuse. This is a serious issue; at the University of Manizales-Colombia, 29% of all medical students reported at least one perceived event of sexual abuse.⁵ Similar results were observed in studies conducted on medical interns at the National Polytechnic Institute in Mexico,²⁵ and on students in other medical and dental schools.^1,6,26 However, these are not the only studies that highlight the importance of the topic; a study on nursing students also corroborated this with similar results.^27–29 Thus, it can be concluded that the perception of sexual abuse is directly proportional to dissatisfaction, suggesting that this is a topic that should be given more attention in future studies. This is a problem that has not been explored in a large population, and it is therefore recommended that university authorities and rectors in each country take preventive and remedial measures to tackle it.

Further, our study found that the older the student, the more dissatisfaction there was with the logistics of their university. This result corroborates two studies: one included undergraduate students from five private universities in Bangladesh³⁰ and the other included graduate students from China, India, Indonesia, and Thailand.³¹ Both studies correlated age with degree of satisfaction, including logistical satisfaction. Conversely, there are studies that conclude that although dissatisfaction is linked to the logistical services offered by the university, student age is not considered a relevant factor. These results were reproduced in two more studies, one of which was conducted at the Universidad Autónoma de Tamaulipas, where 27% of all students were dissatisfied with university logistics.⁷ The other study was conducted at the Universidad Autónoma de Nayarit, where 41% of students were satisfied with the logistical services provided by their university.³² Similar results were also found among university students in Chile, Mexico, and Colombia.^33–36 A study conducted on psychology graduates from three universities in Chile found a high degree of satisfaction with university logistics.³⁷ These results highlight that more research is required on this issue, since the factors that directly intervene in logistical satisfaction are not clear. This is important because university welfare is related to the quality of logistics implemented by each university, which in turn influences academic satisfaction and performance (confirmed by a study conducted at the Universidad Autónoma de San Luis Potosí³⁸).

Despite what has been described above, the present study found that Panamanian university students were less satisfied with “the agreements” offered by their universities. This could be related to their multiple links with universities and other first-world institutions, which other higher education centers do not have, as shown by a study conducted in higher education institutions in the Toluca Valley.²⁰ In addition, students from countries such as Colombia and Panama have shown less dissatisfaction with the research conducted at their campuses, which could be related to the greater support provided to students in their institutions to encourage undergraduate publication.

It is important to mention that this study has certain limitations. The results cannot be extrapolated to all students in the countries mentioned in this study as no random sampling and/or multiple levels of stratification were undertaken. However, the results are nonetheless very valuable since for the first time, they shed light on the abuse faced by students and the association with their level of perceived satisfaction, in a wide and diverse Latin American student population. It has already been established that this research is contextual in nature; therefore, university institutions should carry out longitudinal research to measure the causality of the different aspects of satisfaction.

Based on the results, it is concluded that there is a relationship between some aspects of student satisfaction and the abuse that they may have received. The older the student, the more they were dissatisfied with the logistics. Those who were in the upper third percentile of those who perceived sexual abuse had greater dissatisfaction with the teaching given by the universities, and were most dissatisfied with university agreements. The country that was most satisfied with the “agreements” of its institution was Panama. In turn, Panama and Colombia were satisfied with the research conducted at their universities.

Data availability