Shared causes of personal and interpersonal violence among Batswana youth: implications for self-care for prevention

Abstract (English)

Violence against young women (VAW) and suicide among young men are serious concerns in Botswana. Mental health services are scarce and VAW is mainly treated as a police matter. Looking for possibilities for prevention, we examined the overlap in locally perceived causes of these two forms of violence, using the results from separate studies using fuzzy cognitive mapping (FCM). FCM depicts perceived causes of an outcome and their links to the outcome and each other, with weights denoting the perceived strength of each link. The two studies engaged groups of young women, young men, older women, and older men in rural communities. We grouped related concepts into broader categories, then combined category maps for each outcome into a single map including both forms of violence. Using social network analysis, we calculated the out-degree centrality of each category indicating its influence within the network. We explored the effects of removing individual categories on suicide and VAW. Of 24 causal categories in the combined map, six were shared between both outcomes, 10 were for suicide only, and seven were for VAW only. The six shared categories accounted for 60% of cumulative influence of all categories in the combined map. The three most influential shared categories were financial difficulties, conflict in relationships, and parenting and family issues. Avoiding conflict in relationships could reduce suicide by 4.8% and VAW by 18.5%. Eliminating parenting and family issues could reduce suicide by 3% and VAW by 5.4%. Preventing financial difficulties could reduce suicide by 9.3% and VAW by 2.9%. The findings support the idea that some interventions, including culturally-attuned self-care, might reduce both personal and interpersonal violence among youth. This analysis of stakeholder perceived causes and potential interventions will help to inform youth-led co-design of self-care strategies to reduce youth suicide and VAW in Botswana.