GENDER STUDIES IN ADOLESCENTS-RESEARCH REVIEW ON TURKIYE
When the literature is examined, there are very few studies on gender perceptions of adolescents in Turkiye. In 2019, Sercan Demirtaş’s academic thesis with 14 and 15 year old male and female adolescents found that boys had a more traditional and sexist approach than girls. In the study conducted in schools with a low socio-economic level, it was observed that the roles of girls in society are predetermined and these roles are defined as domestic responsibilities and childcare, and thus it is understood that they have a more traditional approach. Girls in schools with high socio-economic status were found to have a more egalitarian approach. However, in the same study, while there was a positive consensus among both genders about the fair participation of women in professional life, it was learned that women were expected to do housework and be a good wife and mother in terms of domestic labor.
The study published by Nur and Akova in 2023 was conducted with adolescents between the ages of 13 and 18 with newspaper news between 2019 and 2021. The reason for conducting the study with newspaper news is that there are ethical obstacles in academic research because individuals under the age of 18 are not yet adults and are children.
It was observed that 7.1% of the news on violence against women in newspapers were about adolescent girls and this figure decreased to 1.6% in 2021. The rate of decline is estimated to be due to the fact that they live in the news due to covid-19, their social interactions are reduced, or worse, the victimization is not known. However, it is learned that 32.6% of the perpetrators of violence against adolescent girls are intimate partners. It is understood that 72% of the location of the violence is in rural areas. The types of violence are sexual, physical and fatal cases, respectively. Since the source of the information is newspaper reports, psychological and verbal violence is not detected in the types of violence in the study.
A recent study conducted by the Association for Struggle Against Sexual Violence with 812 university students in Turkiye reveals that women and men perpetrate psychological (80.1% of women and 75.5% of men), physical (43.0% of women and 35.0% of men) and sexual violence (25.0% of women and 41.8% of men) against their partners (Toplu-Demirtaş, Hatipoğlu Sümer, & White, 2019).
In another study conducted with university students, 77.4% of women and 70.0% of men reported being subjected to psychological violence by their partners (Toplu & Hatipoğlu-Sümer, 2011). In the same study, when it comes to physical and sexual violence, these rates were 29.1% and 38.0% (sexual violence) and 37.1% and 37.0% (physical violence) for women and men, respectively. A thesis study on partner violence in same-sex relationships revealed that gay, lesbian and bisexual people perpetrate partner violence and are subjected to partner violence (Gülmez, 2018).
Education is of great importance for the healthy structuring of gender perception. Not only young individuals but also youth workers in this field should receive training on gender in order to contribute to the solution of the problem. Explaining this importance, the study of Toplu-Demirtaş and Murray (2017) in Turkiye shows that 23.1% of people working in the field of mental health have never taken courses on violence in close relationships, domestic violence and sexual violence in their undergraduate education. The rate of mental health professionals who stated that they took a course on violence in close relationships, domestic violence and sexual violence in their undergraduate education is only 12.4%. According to another finding obtained by Dolunay-Cug et al. (2017) in the same study, mental health professionals who did not take any courses on violence in their undergraduate education but received training after graduation felt more competent and sufficient when working with violence cases than those who did not take any courses/training. In this context, improving the professional capacities of school counselors, who are mental health professionals, to recognize, prevent and intervene in dating violence and supporting them to carry out protective-preventive work with young people in the school environment seems to have a critical importance that will compensate for a major deficiency.
The study published by Nur and Akova in 2023 was conducted with adolescents between the ages of 13 and 18 with newspaper news between 2019 and 2021. The reason for conducting the study with newspaper news is that there are ethical obstacles in academic research because individuals under the age of 18 are not yet adults and are children.
It was observed that 7.1% of the news on violence against women in newspapers were about adolescent girls and this figure decreased to 1.6% in 2021. The rate of decline is estimated to be due to the fact that they live in the news due to covid-19, their social interactions are reduced, or worse, the victimization is not known. However, it is learned that 32.6% of the perpetrators of violence against adolescent girls are intimate partners. It is understood that 72% of the location of the violence is in rural areas. The types of violence are sexual, physical and fatal cases, respectively. Since the source of the information is newspaper reports, psychological and verbal violence is not detected in the types of violence in the study.
A recent study conducted by the Association for Struggle Against Sexual Violence with 812 university students in Turkiye reveals that women and men perpetrate psychological (80.1% of women and 75.5% of men), physical (43.0% of women and 35.0% of men) and sexual violence (25.0% of women and 41.8% of men) against their partners (Toplu-Demirtaş, Hatipoğlu Sümer, & White, 2019).
In another study conducted with university students, 77.4% of women and 70.0% of men reported being subjected to psychological violence by their partners (Toplu & Hatipoğlu-Sümer, 2011). In the same study, when it comes to physical and sexual violence, these rates were 29.1% and 38.0% (sexual violence) and 37.1% and 37.0% (physical violence) for women and men, respectively. A thesis study on partner violence in same-sex relationships revealed that gay, lesbian and bisexual people perpetrate partner violence and are subjected to partner violence (Gülmez, 2018).
Education is of great importance for the healthy structuring of gender perception. Not only young individuals but also youth workers in this field should receive training on gender in order to contribute to the solution of the problem. Explaining this importance, the study of Toplu-Demirtaş and Murray (2017) in Turkiye shows that 23.1% of people working in the field of mental health have never taken courses on violence in close relationships, domestic violence and sexual violence in their undergraduate education. The rate of mental health professionals who stated that they took a course on violence in close relationships, domestic violence and sexual violence in their undergraduate education is only 12.4%. According to another finding obtained by Dolunay-Cug et al. (2017) in the same study, mental health professionals who did not take any courses on violence in their undergraduate education but received training after graduation felt more competent and sufficient when working with violence cases than those who did not take any courses/training. In this context, improving the professional capacities of school counselors, who are mental health professionals, to recognize, prevent and intervene in dating violence and supporting them to carry out protective-preventive work with young people in the school environment seems to have a critical importance that will compensate for a major deficiency.