University Students' Attitudes About Violence Against Women in the Name of Honor

Objective This research was conducted to determine attitudes of university students toward violence aganist women in the name of honor. Method This cross-sectional and descriptive study was conducted with university students in Turkey. In addition to demographic information gathering, the following instruments were used to measure student attitudes: Introductory Information Form, Attitudes Toward Honor Scale, and Attitudes Toward Violence Against Women Scale. The high scores show the negative attitudes regarding the concept of honor. Analyses included descriptive statistics and analysis of variance with t tests, and alpha was set at 0.05. Findings Analyses were conducted on 1,038 surveys completed by students. Among the student participants, 686 (66.1%) were female, and the mean age was 20.51 +/- 3.17 years. In all participants, 509 (49.0%) reported that they had been exposed to physical, verbal, sexual, or economic violence at least once in their lifetime; 151 (14.5%) had witnessed an honor killing in the social environment in which their families lived. The mean score of the Attitudes Toward Honor Scale (31.80 +/- 15.84, max: 84) and Attitudes Toward Violence Against Women Scale (25.32 +/- 9.36, max: 84) were found to be below the average. The mean scores on scales were found statistically significant (p < 0.05). Conclusion University students do not approve of violence against women in the name of honor. However, some students, whose cultural characteristics were more dominant, tend to approve honor killings.