THE STATE OF YOUTHS ATTITUDE TO THE EXPOSURE OF VIOLENCE IN EAST HARARGE ZONE, HARAMAYA

Abstract

Globally, at least one in four people have been reported to have witnessed or experienced exposed to violence. In Ethiopia,one can easily speculate that every person living today has experienced orwill experience, directly or indirectly, some type of exposure to violence. The purpose of this study was to investigate the youths' attitudes to the exposure of violence with respect to gender and educational levels in Haramaya district. The study employed a descriptive survey research design approach. The study included ten sample kebeles selected from 35 kebeles by both purposive sampling techniques. A tool, the attitude to the exposures of violence Scale, was developed and the data were analyzed using mean, standard deviation, percentage, independent sample t test, and one-way ANOVA through SPSS version 20. The analysis was conducted to investigate the effect that gender and level of education have on their attitudes to exposure of violence. The results indicated that majority of youths strongly disagree with sub scale of attitude to the exposures of gangs and the result of the independent sample t test showed that there is a statistically significant difference (t (382) = 2.05,p=0.04) in attitude to the exposure of gangs violence between male and females. However, there is no statistically significant difference (t (382) = -1.155, p =0.249) in overall attitudes to the exposure of violence between males and females. The results of one-way ANOVA test indicated that attitudes to the exposure of violence differ at a significant level depending on levels of education. The education level of the youth had a positive effect on some aspects of their attitude to the exposure of violence. Thus, educational institutions, families, and society as a whole must take responsibility for instilling a fear of exposed of violence in future citizens.