Nursing students´attitudes towards domestic violence : a quantitative study at Kilimanjaro Christian Medical College, Moshi,Tanzania

Abstract: Gender-based violence is a widespread health problem all over the world and in Tanzania, domestic violence and rape within marriage are widely spread. Since nursing students are likely to meet abused women within their future profession, it is important to explore their attitudes towards the subject. The aim with the study was to describe nursing students' attitudes towards domestic violence. The method used was descriptive, quantitative and the instrument used was a questionnaire containing questions from Domestic Violence Blame Scale (DVBS) and Domestic Violence Myths Acceptance Scale (DVMAS), two selfconstructed questions were also added. The respondents (n=30) were nursing students at KCM College, in Moshi Tanzania. The result shows that the general opinion among the students was that the likeliness of domestic violence to occur was affected by situational factors, such as family living conditions. Almost half of the respondents strongly agreed that the Tanzanian society was male-dominated, and that it contributes to the occurrence of domestic violence and many of the students thought that women instigate domestic violence and that they have themselves to blame. Since the result shows that many of the students seem not to fully understand the mechanisms of domestic violence and that they tend to blame the victim for the crime it is essential with more education on the subject.