Title: GENDER-BASED VIOLENCE AND ASSOCIATED FACTORS AMONG PRIVATE
COLLEGE FEMALE STUDENTS IN DESSIE CITY, ETHIOPIA: MIXED METHOD
STUDY
Version: 2 Date: 20 Sep 2022
Reviewer's report:
GENDER-BASED VIOLENCE AND ASSOCIATED FACTORS AMONG FEMALE
PRIVATE COLLEGE STUDENTS IN DESSIE CITY, ETHIOPIA: MIXED METHOD
STUDY
The authors raised and tried to address an important and sensitive issue. Violence is an alarming
issue in Ethiopia and even in the world at large. That is why the Ethiopian government designed
an intervention plan and many NGOs are involved.
Abstract
Introduction
From your abstract, you describe “As a result, it would be a threat to the achievement of
the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), especially those related to education and gender
equality”. The sentence is not clear and to make it specific add which SDG is going to be
achieved.
……Also, studies that are conducted on private college female students are limited. I think this
sentence is overstated. I tried to search and there are literatures even systematic review and
qualitative studies at different segments of Ethiopia.
“Therefore, to assess the magnitude of gender-based violence and associated factors among
female private college students in Dessie City, Ethiopia, 2021”. Rewrite this sentence please.
Method:  what type of concurrent study- nested/ triangulation?
“Self-administered questionnaire and an in-depth interview c were used to collect the data. The
collected data were cleaned and entered into Epi data and analyzed using a static package for
social science”.  Correct wordings and unnecessary ads like ‘c’ and correct “static” –statistical
package for social…
Line number 37; Logistic regression....  please describe a type of regression like Binary.
Conclusions: In this study, the high prevalence of gender-based violence in higher learning
institutions (colleges and universities) is very shocking and intolerable. Your wording seems
deadly, please use smooth words. Besides, what is your ground to say so? It could be easy if you
have a comparison. Make sure your conclusion is in line with your finding.
Introduction: from line number 68-71, please rewrite the sentences, it has a grammatical error.
There are also nuts and bolts that need to be tightened in your introduction part.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
Study Design and Period: Mixed-methods study design (Concurrent qualitative and qualitative
mixed study design) ------- see above (type of concurrent study design). I suggest saying “mixed
method concurrent triangulation study design”
Inclusion and Exclusion Criteria: …..those female students spending less than 6 months in the
fiscal year were excluded from the study….. Why? Unless you have a clear justification it seems
wrong. In my opinion, these study subjects are more vulnerable than others as they are fresh.
Even a single day is enough to be violated. Your result may not be conclusive because of the
aforementioned reasons.
Sample size determination: “Simple random sampling generator software by taking a list of
female Students from the registrar's office and developing a sample frame” is an incomplete
sentence.  For the qualitative study, describe here how many in-depth interviews were
undertaken? How did you ensure data saturation? Just a sentence “…..degree of data saturation”
is not enough.
Data Collection Procedure and Quality assurance: ….initially developed in English by reviewing
available literature…. Was the tool translated to the local language?  Were other methods used
to assure the data quality? How do you ensure the data quality in a qualitative study? How did
you assure the trustworthiness or credibility of your qualitative study?
I miss the data collection tool. How did you collect the raw data from study subjects, using tape,
mobile, or other devices?
Data Processing and Analysis: ….then it will be exported to SPPSS 23 statistical software for
process and analysis…see the grammar and even SPPSS???
Logistic regression analysis was used........ Type of logistic regression used?  …..with a p-value
of 0.20 or less was entered… Why 0.2? …….Hosmer and Lemeshow Goodness of fit test. Multi
colinearity test was checked using variance inflation factors (VIF). Show how much was it, the
number here for both IVF and Hosmer and Lemeshow Goodness of fit?
Which one “thematic /content analysis” do you use? You may use only either thematic or
content analysis. Please, Replace Transcription with translation, and show how many of you
were involved in both transcription and translation to keep its consistency.
RESULTS
Socio-demographic Characteristics of Participants
Total study participants, which one is right, 435 vs 401?
Why response rate of 98.7% is related to the issue that they were victims of and ashamed to
describe? Please see your grammar again.
MAGNITUDE OF GENDER-BASED VIOLENCE (GBV)
Lifetime? It is not clear, how did you ask the students? Was it including violence in their primary
residence?
Writing everything on the table is not advisable. Use either a table or a text.
From line number78-83, it is better to describe it from the methodology part.
Show the confidence interval at a 95% confidence level for the GBV magnitude.
I need to see your regression table.
Discussion:
Authors better use plausible reasons for their explanation to supporting evidences in their
discussion. For example, “socioeconomic factors”: first, is there a real socio-economic
difference between Debark and Dessie? If yes, be specific. There are also unexplained sentences
for its difference as well as similarity. In addition, when do we say the study finding is similar
or different? So, it is better to show the confidence interval for your findings.
Strength and limitation: The limitation of the design is not your limitation.
THANK YOU!