Alcohol Use and Sexual Violence among Nursing Students in Catalonia, Spain: A Multicentre Cross-sectional Study

Abstract

Background: Sexual violence (SV) has become common in universities for reasons related to unwanted social/peer pressures regarding alcohol/drug use and sexual activities. Objectives: To identify perceptions of SV and alcohol use and estimate prevalence among nursing students in Catalonia, Spain. (2) Methods: Observational descriptive cross-sectional study of a convenience sample of nursing students attending public universities. (3) Results: We recruited 686 students (86.11% women), who reported as follows: 68.7% had consumed alcohol, 65.6% had been drunk at least once in the previous year, 62.65% had experienced blackouts and 25.55% had felt pressured to consume alcohol. Drunkenness and blackouts were related (p < 0.000). Of the 15.6% of respondents who had experienced SV, 47.7% experienced SV while under the influence of alcohol and were insufficiently alert to stop what was happening, while 3.06% reported rape. SV was more likely to be experienced by women (OR: 2.770; CI 95%: 1.229-6.242; p = 0.014), individuals reporting a drunk episode in the previous year (OR: 2.839; 95% CI: 1.551-5.197; p = 0.001) and individuals pressured to consume alcohol (OR: 2.091; 95% CI: 1.332-3.281; p = 0.001). (4) Conclusions: Nursing instructors need to raise student awareness of both the effects of alcohol use and SV, so as to equip these future health professionals with the knowledge and skills necessary to deal with SV among young people.