The relationship between university students' attitudes towards gender roles and health

The concept of gender, which is a part of the culture in which the individual lives and which refers to the socially learned roles and attitudes of men and women, varies according to each culture, geography and perspective. The concept of gender, which differs from biological sex for this reason, affects the individual in every period of his/her life, starting from the processes within the family. Many studies in the literature have addressed the gender perceptions and attitudes of individuals with different demographic characteristics. In this study, university students studying in health sciences who continue their academic education were selected as the sample in order to measure the gender roles and perceptions of health professionals who have a significant impact on public health and to reveal the relationship with health behaviors. The data obtained with the Gender Roles Attitude Scale and Healthy Lifestyle Scale were analyzed with IBM SPSS Ver 23.0 Statistical Program. With the findings obtained, the relationship between some demographic information of the students and gender roles attitudes and health was found to be significant. Research findings obtained from different geographies were compared with the findings of this study and it was seen that the scales revealed different relationships when applied in different geographies.