Youth violence in Maghreb countries. A systematic review

To determine the prevalence, risk factors as well as consequences of exposure to violence among youth in Maghreb countries.

This is a systematic review. The documentary request was done on 2 October 2019 and no filters were used. It examined all scientific publications indexed in Medline database via Pubmed using the following search equation: ("Violence"[Mesh] OR "suicide"[Mesh] OR "crime victims"[Mesh] OR "Child abuse"[Mesh]) AND ("Young Adult"[Mesh] OR "Adolescent"[Mesh] OR "Child"[Mesh]) AND ("Tunisia"[Mesh] OR "Algeria"[Mesh] OR "Morocco"[Mesh] OR "Libya"[Mesh] OR "Mauritania"[Mesh]).

A total of 16 articles were included. Most of them (68.7%) were published in Uganda, United States and England. The most common type of violence was physical abuse (43.8%). Adolescent boys were mostly affected by physical violence. However, girls were more exposed to emotional violence (63% vs 51%). The suicide rate increased after the social and political Tunisian revolution in 2011. Parental conflicts, school failure and social problems were more frequent among victims of violence. In addition, tobacco and alcohol use, substance abuse and suicide attempt (ranging from 5% to 38%) were higher.

Exposure to violence, especially emotional and physical, is becoming more frequent among youth in Maghreb countries. There is an urgent need for future survey to provide temporal data about violence, especially sexual abuse, in order to implement more effective prevention strategies.