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Abstract
This study is a descriptive one that seeks to determine how adolescent girls cope with verbal sexual abuse in Turkey. The study sample comprised 500 female secondary school students who agreed to participate in the investigation. Data was obtained via a questionnaire that focused on the background of the respondents, the kinds of verbal sexual abuse they had faced, how they felt afterwards, if they had sought to take any action, what coping strategies they adopted, how they explained the abuse and so on. All of them felt that the sexual abuse was abnormal. After the abuse most of the female students did not seek any kind of help and felt that it cannot be stopped. The respondents have had to make some changes in their life styles and restrict their lives to some extent in order to protect themselves from verbal sexual abuse. Some suggestions are made to address the issue and for improving the situation and viewing verbal sexual abuse as an important social and health problem in different educational and health institutions, the family and society.
Abstract in Turkish
Araştırma, Türkiye'de ergenlerin sözel cinsel tacizle karşılaşma ve baş etme durumları arasındaki ilişkiyi saptamak amacıyla tanımlayıcı olarak yapılmıştır. Araştırmanın örneklemini araştırmaya katılmayı kabul eden 500 kız öğrenci oluşturmuştur. Verileri katılımcıların sosyodemografik özellikleri, sözel cinsel tacizle karşılaşma durumları, taciz sonrası hissettikleri duygular, sözel cinsel tacizle karşılaştıktan sonra yardım isteme durumları, kullandıkları baş etme teknikleri ve sözel cinsel tacizi nasıl tanımladıklarını içeren bir soru formu kullanılarak toplanmıştır. Öğrencilerin çoğunluğunun sözel cinsel tacizi normal olmayan bir davranış olarak algıladıkları bulunmuştur. Sözel cinsel taciz sonrası liseli kız öğrencilerin genellikle yardım istemedikleri ve sözel cinsel tacizin önlenemeyeceğini düşündükleri bulunmuştur. Liseli kız öğrencilerin sözel cinsel tacizle karşılaşmamak için yaşamlarında değişiklik/kısıtlama yapmak eğiliminde oldukları bulunmuştur. Elde edilen sonuçlar doğrultusunda sözel cinsel tacizin çeşitli eğitim ve sağlık kurumları, aile ve toplum tarafından önemli bir sağlık problemi olarak görülmesi ve sorunun çözümünü sağlayacak çeşitli önerilerde bulunulmuştur.
Acknowledgements
The authors are grateful to all the students who participated in this study. This study received external funding from Akdeniz University Scientific Research Project Unit.
Notes on contributors
Işıl IŞIK is an Assistant Professor at the Department of Nursing of Yeditepe University in İstanbul. Işıl received her PhD at Marmara University in 2012 from the Psychiatric Nursing. Her interests include qualitative research, gender, gender based violence, successful aging, cognitive and behavioral therapy. With Güner Küçükkaya P, she co-wrote the article, “Predictors of Psychiatric Symptoms Scores in a Sample of Turkish High School Students,” which was published in Nursing and Health Sciences, 12(4), 429–436.
Özen KULAKAÇ is a Professor at the Department of Nursing of Ondokuz Mayıs University in Samsun. Özen received her PhD at Hacettepe University in 1998 from the Maternity and Woman Health Nursing. Her interests include qualitative research, gender, gender based violence, gender and nursing in connection with health and nursing. She contributed in an edited book, “Women’ Health” and wrote a chapter (in Turkish) entitled “Violence against Women in the Family.” Her recent article focused on the “Experiences of Gynecological Cancer through Perspectives of Existential Philosophy: A Qualitative Meta-Synthesis Study” (in Turkish). Email: [email protected]
