Vigneri, Marcella, Fadare, Olusegun ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0647-7438, Devries, Karen, Iversen, Vegard and Brück, Tilman ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-8344-8948 (2026) Past political violence and interpersonal violence against children and youth in Africa. Nature Communications, 17:3044. ISSN 2041-1723 (Online) (doi:10.1038/s41467-026-71075-x)

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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.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	Open Access funding enabled and organized by Projekt DEAL.
Uncontrolled Keywords:	political violence, interpersonal violence, children and youth, sub-Saharan Africa, intimate partner violence, emotional violence, sexual violence, long-term exposure, secondary data analysis
Subjects:	H Social Sciences > H Social Sciences (General) H Social Sciences > HV Social pathology. Social and public welfare J Political Science > JA Political science (General) R Medicine > RJ Pediatrics > RJ101 Child Health. Child health services
Faculty / School / Research Centre / Research Group:	Faculty of Engineering & Science Faculty of Engineering & Science > Natural Resources Institute Faculty of Engineering & Science > Natural Resources Institute > Centre for Society, Environment and Development (CSED)
Related URLs:	Organisation
Last Modified:	22 Apr 2026 13:23
URI:	https://gala.gre.ac.uk/id/eprint/52831

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