Adolescence is Inevitably a Time of Psychological Turmoil - Essay Example

In addition, Turkum considers the variables which predicted adolescents’ violence exposure experiences. Recognizing the importance of handling the problem of school violence in general and in Turkish schools in particular, Turkum identifies a gap in school violence research in relation to the Turkish context. The existing studies, as Turkum observes, do not provide sufficient findings for shaping the content of school counseling programs. Having taken into consideration the topicality of the issue, Turkum formulates the research questions as follows: Do perceptions of Turkish students of problem-solving skills differ based on their sex, frequency of being exposed to violence, and place of being exposed to violence?

Do perceptions of Turkish students of problem solving skills differ based on age and sex if these are students frequently exposed to violence? Are Turkish students’ experiences of being exposed to violence anyhow predicted by their perceptions of skills of problem solving, kind of violence, kind of school, and the variables of age, sex, and grade? To answer the set research questions, the author of the study used the quantitative method characterizing his research as both quantitative and relational since it aims at exploring the relationships between different variables.

He collected the data with the help of a Likert-type scale, based on self-reporting. The study sample represented three different regions of the Turkish city Eskisehir, each of them illustrative of different socio-economic condition. The collection of data used random selection of classes from grade 1 to grade 4 at each high school. All in all, 298 female participants and 302 male participants took part in the study, which altogether were 600 students. The age range was between 14 and 19 years, average age estimated as 16.39 years. Of all participants, one third was the students of the third grade and 18.

8% were students of the fourth grade. Turkum used the following research instruments: PSI (abbreviation for the Problem Solving Inventory) – to measure the skills of students regarding solving problems; and questionnaire to obtain the demographic variables, such as sex, school, age, grade, the parents- and violence- students’ experiences. To analyze the collected data, variance analysis has been used. The author used the techniques of chi-square in combination with regression analysis. The findings of the study allowed to claim that students were most exposed to violent behavior while coming back home from school.

Most often violence was encountered in the schoolyard, and then went changing rooms/washrooms, next way to school, next classroom, plus places around schools and finally school corridors. At the same time, most students reported they have never been exposed to certain cases of violence. Most frequently violence involved swearing, mockery, damage to students’ things, pushing, being backbitten, and being made a pass in sexual aspect. At the same time, such violent cases as robbery, being hit with a knife or a gun, etc were very rare (for instance, in terms of knife injury, 98.

8% said they never experienced it). The findings state that no significant difference between the skills of problem solving in males and females are found. Students reported that they either never or only once experienced such cases as peer bullying, massive fights outside school, being robbed, etc. This, in the view of the researcher, is a positive tendency. Another interesting finding was that younger students are more exposed to violence. In addition, female students have