Past political violence and interpersonal violence against children and youth in Africa

Abstract Political violence (the use of force by groups for political motives) adversely affects children and youth, but there is limited rigorous evidence on whether exposure to political violence is associated with a higher risk of subsequent interpersonal violence against adolescents and young adults. We estimate this association with multi-country micro data from nine African countries, merging nationally representative Violence Against Children and Youth Survey (VACS) data with Armed Conflict Location and Event Data (ACLED) for Côte d’Ivoire, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Uganda, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. We find that a one standard deviation increase in past long-term exposure to political violence increases the odds of adolescents and young adults subsequently experiencing emotional violence from family members by 5.5%, physical violence from intimate partners by 3.0%, and sexual violence in poorer households by 16.9%. There was no statistically significant association for past short-term exposure to political violence.