Violence among university students in Edirne-Turkey

Aim: This study was done for determining the violence-related behaviors of the university students.

 Methods: This is a cross-sectional study, which included a representative sample of all students of Trakya University. The sample of 1620 students enrolled at the Trakya University was stratified according to sex and actual student number of faculties and colleges and selected by systematically sampling. The selected students answered a questionnaire on violence-related behaviors, in a classroom, under observation.

 Results: One hundred twenty two students (8.0%) reported that they carry a weapon such as gun, knife or club in social life and seventy three students (4.5%) on school property during the past 30 days. 4.9% (79) of the students told they did not go to school at least one day during the past 30 days because they felt they would be unsafe in school or on the way of the school.
4.4% (72) of the students reported that they have been threatened or injured with a weapon on school property during the last 12 months. 33.5% (542) of them told they were in a physical fight at least one time during the past 12 months and 14.5% (235) were in a physical fight at least one time during the past 12 months on school property. 117 students (7.3%) of the students reported that they were in physical fight in which they were injured and had to be treated by a doctor or nurse, during the past 12 months.

 Conclusion: Violence among university youth is not acceptable howsoever and for which reason it is. There is necessity of more studies on causes of the youth violence and interventions to solve this problem.