Ethnic Identities of University Students: The Relationship Between Community Violence, Ethnic Discrimination, and Aggression

Abstract

The aim of this article is to understand the relationship between ethnic identity, victimization/witnessing community violence, ethnic discrimination, and aggression in a sample of university students living in the South East Region of Turkey. The participants were 263 university students of predominantly Kurdish ethnic origin. The results showed that males had higher levels of ethnic identity in the dimensions of exploration and commitment. Males also presented higher scores for witnessing community violence and lifetime exposure to ethnic discrimination. The most important predictor of participants' ethnic identity was witnessing community violence. Participants who witnessed violent acts in their social environment had higher ethnic identity levels. Although the predictor variables could not explain an important part of the participants' aggression levels, only perceived ethnic discrimination was positively related to aggressive behavior. The role of native language efficiency in ethnic identity is also discussed.