Examining Students' Tendencies Towards Kindness; A Cross-Sectional Study

Abstract

The aim of this study is to examine students' kindness tendencies in terms of some demographic variables. The sample of the study consists of 558 secondary school students, 300 (54%) male and 258 (46%) female, living in Istanbul. In the study, the Student Kindness Scale was used to measure students' kindness tendencies.  In the study, t-test was used to reveal the difference between two mean scores and one-way ANOVA was used to test the significance of the difference between more than two mean scores. Pearson Product Moment Correlation coefficient was used to measure the relationship between two variables. In addition, independent categorical variables were turned into dummy variables and Stepwise regression analysis was applied to test the effect of independent variables on the dependent variable. According to the findings, empathy, communication kindness and total scale scores of the sub-dimensions of the student kindness scale were found to be significant in favor of girls. As the duration of internet use increased, respect, empathy, communication and school kindness scale scores decreased. Children who were treated with respect and fairness during childhood had higher kindness scale scores. Generally successful students were found to have more politeness behaviors. It is seen that children who are exposed to behaviors accepted as politeness at home and at school have more communicative kindness. The variables that have the most significant effect on student kindness are achievement, treating children fairly and respectfully, frequency of accessing the internet and gender, respectively.