The attitudes of nursing students towards violence against women and the affecting factors

This research is a descriptive and correlational study that determined to identify the attitudes of Ege University – Faculty of Nursing students towards violence against women and the affecting factors. The study was conducted at Ege University, Faculty of Nursing in 2015-2016 academic year fall term. Study's respective population consisted of 1432 existing students in total who currently undergo education at Ege University – Faculty of Nursing. In paralel, study's sample included 1086 students. The sample group's representation of the population in percentage was set at 75.8%. Incorporated constructs that emerged from study's data were collected through multiple resources including "Data Collection Form" and "The Scale for Attitudes Toward Violence Against Women". Analytical tools such as frequency, percentage, Pearson's Chi-Squared and Fisher's Exact Chi-Squared tests were used in analyzing collected data; while researcher undertook Dunnett's T3, Bonferroni for One Way Anova advanced analysis and t-test in studying the independent groups. Ages of 1086 students who participated in this study ranged betwen 17-28 and the average age was set to be 20.99±1.54. Study identified 84.4% of students as female and 15.6% as male, out of which 21.1% was categorized as first year, 30.9% as second year, 29.6% as third year and lastly 18.3% fourth year (interns) students. The study demonstrated that 60.3% of students' mothers hold an elementary school degree and 21.8% of students' mothers underwent high-school education. In paralel, 50.10% of fathers hold an elementary school degree while 30.5% received high school education and 11.3% pursued bachelor degrees. 32.5% of students indicated that they got training in regard to violence against women at any given time while 67.5% students stated that they have never received training as such. Out of all nurses who confirmed receival of training regarding violence towards women (n=353), 46.5% stated that they got trained during high-school and 42.8% of them specified their training period as part of their bachelor studies, 4.5% of them stated that they got trained during both high-school and their bachelor studies. Out of all the students who were conducted in the research, 21.6% was found out to have witnessed domestic violence and 78.4% have not experienced such occurrences. 40.1% of the students were exposed to violence in their lifetime while 59.9% reported they were not subject to any violence what so ever. Average score of "Scale for Attitudes of Students Toward Violence Against Women" was identified to be 33.68±10.22. Score of "Economic Violence" sub-group score in Scale for Attitudes of Students Towards Violence Against Women was found out to be (11.49 ± 4.72), "Emotional, psychological and sexual violence sub-group score was measured as (11.82±4.53) and "Justifying myths" sub-group score was (4.50±2.07) and "Explanatory Myths" sub-group score was revealed to be (5.87±2.29). The research distinguished a substantial difference /discrepancy between 'total average score of students participated in "The Scale for Attitudes Toward Violence Against Women" and their provided information such as 'who they live with', 'the region where they families have lived the longest', 'family types', 'educational status of their fathers', 'the high school they graduated', 'their educational background in violence against women', 'their willingness to get education against violence', 'their self-expressed opinion whether they would take action against violence', 'the repercussions of violence in careers/day to day jobs of their friends or acquaintances in the event of them going through violence' or 'students who experienced violence at first hand during their life time' (p<0.05). In conclusion, the study has found out that one fifth of students at School of Nursing have experienced domestic violence throughout their lives while invariably two out of five students have witnessed violence for at least once in their lifetime. It can be seen clearly that the amount of students who experienced violence is considerably high. Furthermore, the study also disclosed that a great majority of nursing students have never received training against violence where on the contrary their score in "The Scale for Attitudes Toward Violence Against Women" was comparatively low which leaded the researched to the fact that they adopt modern attitudes against violence. This multi-method research documented that the students of Faculty of Nursing exhibit positive attitude towards violence against women. Keywords: violence against women; school of nursing students; attitude.