Muchai, Lilian Njeri2024-11-212024-11-212024Muchai, Lilian Njeri. (2024). Early life factors associated with childhood trajectories of violence among the birth to twenty- plus cohort in Soweto, South Africa [Master’s dissertation, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg]. WireDSpace.https://hdl.handle.net/10539/42784A Research Report Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements of Master of Science (MSc) in Epidemiology in the field of Epidemiology and Biostatistics to the faculty of Health Sciences, School of Public Health, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg 2024Introduction Violence against children has devastating and long-term negative consequences on individuals' and society's health, social and economic well-being. There is limited research on the life course experience of violence especially in Africa. This study aimed to identify sub-groups of physical & sexual violence victimization patterns separately in childhood, and evaluate early life factors predicting these violence trajectories. Methods This study used data from age 5 to 18 years from the ongoing prospective Birth to Twenty Plus cohort (Bt20+). Children within the Bt20+ cohort with data on physical and sexual violence in at least 2-time points between 5 and 18 years were included in the analyses. Group-based trajectory modelling was employed to identify groups of children with similar patterns of violence over time. Descriptive statistics was used to summarize study variables by violence trajectory group membership, while multivariable logistic regression was used to identify early life factors measured between birth and 5 years, associated with violence trajectory group membership. Results Two trajectory groups were identified for both physical and sexual violence victimization. For physical violence victimization, the majority of participants fell into the adolescent limited group (65.1%) and just over a third (34.9%) of the children were in the chronic increasing group. For sexual violence victimization, most participants fell into the adolescent limited group (74.1%, with a quarter in the late increasing (25.9%) group. Early life factors associated with a higher risk of chronic increasing physical violence victimization trajectory group membership, after adjusting for covariates, were being male (aOR 1.67, 95% CI 1.31; 2.10) and having a mother with at least secondary education compared to higher education (aOR 1.73, 95% CI 1.08; 2.76). In addition, residing in middle, compared to low, socioeconomic households (aOR 0.68, 95% CI 0.50; 0.92) was protective against membership in this group. Residing in high compared to low socioeconomic households, was the only early life factor with marginally significant (aOR 0.63, 95% CI 0.42; 0.95) association with membership in the late-increasing sexual violence victimization trajectory group, with those in better-off households less likely to experience sexual violence victimization with this pattern. Conclusion Children within the same community can follow different patterns of both physical and sexual violence victimization across childhood. Identification of early factors that predict membership to sub-groups of violence trajectories provides key violence prevention intervention points that can preempt or mitigate children’s exposure or experience of violence. Future research should explore a larger variety of early life factors proximal to the child as well as those more distal at the community and school levelsen© 2024 University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. All rights reserved. The copyright in this work vests in the University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg. No part of this work may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, without the prior written permission of University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg.Physical violenceSexual violenceTrajectoriesEarly lifeLongitudinalUCTDSDG-3: Good health and well-beingDissertationUniversity of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg