Original scientific paper
The Prevalence of Risky Behaviors Related to Violence in High School Students in a Southern City, Turkey
Sevgi Ozcan
Ahmet Ergin
Esra Saatci
Nafiz Bozdemir
Hatice Kurdak
Abstract
Injuries are the leading cause of mortality and morbidity in adolescents and can be grouped as unintentional (such as
motor vehicle crashes and fires) and intentional (violence and suicide). The aim of this study was to find the prevalence
of high risk behaviors related to violence in high school students. The population comprised 2,480 randomly selected students
from 10 schools among 46,271 students from 72 high schools in 1999–2000 in Adana and 2,352 (94.8%) were
reached. They completed a Youth Risk Behavior Survey Questionnaire (YRBSQ). The mean age was 16.5 ± 1 (14–21)
years. 275 (11.7%) students stated that they carried a knife or a sharp weapon during the last 30 days, 151 (6.4%) carried
a gun, 710 (30.2%) participated in a physical fight, 68 (2.9%) were threatened or injured by a weapon, 73 (3.1%) could not
attend school because of threats from other students, 96 (4.1%) were forced into sexual intercourse. Male students were
significantly more likely than female students to report all types of high risk behaviors except forced sexual intercourse.
The rate of risky behaviors increased with higher grade. Violence towards and by adolescents is a severe problem. Families,
teachers, and health care professionals should be aware of risk factors and be active in prevention of high risk behaviors
in youth.
Keywords
violence; behavior; adolescent; questionnaire; Turkey
Hrčak ID:
34080
URI
Publication date:
1.12.2008.
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