The Attitudes and the Behaviours of the University Studentstowards Dating Violence

Aim: The aim of this study is to assess theattitudes and behaviours of the university studentstowards dating violence.Method: The study was conducted among female(n = 200) and male (n = 300) students studyingat a public university and staying a dormitory ofStudents Loans and Dormitories Institution during2015-1016 academic year's spring semester. Aquestionnaire consisting of 23 questions was usedto collect the data. The obtained data wereanalysed by using numbers, percentages and chisquare test in SPSS database.Findings: The average age of the students was22,09 ± 2,29, 51,8% were exposed to theviolence during childhood, 37,8% frequentlywitnessed violence during childhood, 28,6% wereexposed to the violence of intimate partners,22,1% committed violence against their intimatepartners, and 13,9% reported a relationship thatended because of the violence. When theattitudes of the students were examined, it wasseen that, in general, the females' awareness ofviolence was higher than that of the males; also,certain behaviours such as neglect, mocking,tracking, restricting social life, cheating andjealousy were less considered as violentbehaviours by males than by females. Besides, itwas observed that there was a significantrelationship between previous exposure toviolence, witnessing violence in childhood anddating violence practice (p<0,05). Conclusion: Among the university student group,the awareness of dating violence was low and theextent of violent behaviours against partner wassignificant.