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

Background: A high rate of student abuse has been reported in various studies; however, few studies substantiate the seriousness of the issue in Latin American contexts. This study aimed to characterize the abuse of university students in five Latin American countries and its association with student satisfaction.   Methods: An analytical transversal study was conducted, in which 2,141 undergraduate students from Paraguay, Ecuador, Colombia, Venezuela, and Panama were surveyed. A validated questionnaire was applied to evaluate four types of abuse (Cronbach's Alpha: 0.90): psychological, physical, academic, and sexual. In addition, students’ perception of satisfaction of four items in the university environment (Cronbach's Alpha: 0.85) was also analyzed.   Results: It was found that the older students were, the more dissatisfied they were with “logistics” (aPR: 1.02; 95% CI: 1.00-1.04; p-value; 0.014) and the top-third segment of those who perceived “sexual abuse” were more dissatisfied with the teaching provided by their universities (aPR: 1.23; 95% CI: 1.00-1.52; p-value: 0.048). Moreover, those who were most dissatisfied with the agreements were part of the top-third segment of those who perceived sexual abuse (aPR: 1.16; 95% CI: 1.03-1.32; p-value: 0.016) and those in the country of Panama were less dissatisfied with “agreements” (RPa: 0.70; 95% CI: 0.66-0.073; p-value<0.001). The countries of Colombia (aPR: 0.08; IC95%: 0.01-0.59; p-value: 0.014) and Panama (aPR: 0.57; 95% CI: 0.52-0.64; p-value<0.001) were less dissatisfied with investigation programs.   Conclusions: The perception of ‘sexual abuse’ was the only risk factor statistically associated with dissatisfaction with teaching and agreements.