Intimate Partner Violence and Psychological Distress among Students in United States International University – Africa, Kenya

The general objective of the study was to determine the relationship between intimate partner violence and levels of psychological distress among the undergraduate students at USIU-Africa, Kenya namely; anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder. Descriptive and correlation research designs were used. The study targeted a population of 120 undergraduate male and female students; with an equal sample of 30 students from each gender and the four years of study; who had an age range of 18-25 years. Combined-Strategy sampling which included both simple and stratified random sampling was used to obtain the Population sample. The data was collected using Questionnaires and analyzed using Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) Version 25. Descriptive Statistics such as mean, standard deviation, frequencies as well as inferential statistics such as correlation analysis were generated. The findings of the study revealed that majority of the respondents who had experienced or observed intimate partner violence had a very strong positive correlation with depression(r=0.291, p=0.05), a strong positive correlation with anxiety(r=0.238, p=0.027) but a weak positive correlation with Post Traumatic stress disorder(r=0.196, p=0.60). The study therefore, recommended that the USIU-Africa University should liaise with the students in order to come up with measures that can be put in place to address them. Finally the study also recommended that a similar research should be conducted in the other universities in Kenya so as to confirm or disagree with the findings; in order to design measures that can be put in place to address the challenges that might arise from the findings.