Violence Tendency among Secondary School Students: The Effect of Self-Esteem and Empathic Tendency

Abstract

Aims: Personal, familial and environmental factors can be effective in tendency to violence. This study was conducted to determine the effects of self-esteem of adolescents and empathic tendency on levels of violence tendency to secondary school students, regardless of socio-demographic characteristics. Study Design: This study is a retrospective record study. Place and Duration of Study: Secondary schools in the city center of Yozgat in the 2017-2018 academic years. Methodology: In the study, the data in the records of secondary school students (n=987, boys 503, girls 484; grade range 5-8) which were collected using the scales were used. The data were analysed by correlation, independent t-test, Anova and linear regression (LR). Results: The mean violence tendency, self-esteem, and empathic tendency scales’ scores of the students were 33.4, 69.0 and 2.4, respectively. According to the multivariate analysis, low empathic tendency, family perception of low performance, disliking school, increased TV viewing time, low self-esteem, increased age, being exposed to violence at home and not preparing for high school entrance exam were found to be statistically significant as the factors affecting the tendency to violence in order of priorities. Conclusion: Early adolescents have a moderate level of tendency to violence. Moreover, low self-esteem, low empathic tendency, individual characteristics and parental attitudes are associated with tendency to violence.