Relationship between social work students' levels of respect for diversity and gender perceptions

This study aims to examine the relationship between social work students level of respect for diversity and their perceptions of gender. The universe of study was composed of 3rd and 4th grade students studying in social work departments Ankara University, Ankara Yıldırım Beyazıt University, Başkent University and Hacettepe University, in Ankara. As a result of the research, data was collected from 346 students. In line with the purpose of the research, a questionnaire was applied as a data collection tool. The questionnaire consisted of a total of 76 questions including 21 questions prepared by the researcher, the Respect for Diversity Scale consisting of 30 questions developed by Öksüz and Güven, the Gender Perception Scale consisting of 25 questions developed by Altınova and Duyan. All data were analyzed via IBM SPSS Statistics 20. In the analysis of the data; Spearman Correlation test, Mann Whitney U test and Kruskal Wallis test were used. The findings of the research are as follows: The value of x̄ = 130,968 which the students get from the Respect for Diversity Scale shows a high level of respect for diversity. The value of x̄=114,075 which the students get from the Gender Perception Scale shows a high level of gender perception. There is a positive correlation of ,467 between the scores that the students received from the Respect for Diversity Scale and the Gender Perception Scale. The group whose family has an income level between 1501-3000 TL has a lower level of respect for the diversity compared to the ones with 0-1500 TL, 3001-4500 TL and 4500 TL and above income levels. Participants with extended family structure have lower gender perception than participants with nuclear family structure. Those who have 3 or more siblings have a lower gender perception than those who do not have siblings, those who have 1 sibling and 2 siblings. It was observed that those who do not choose the social work department voluntarily have a lower perception of gender than those who choose it voluntarily and express others.