Turkish University Students` Attitudes, Contact Quantity, and Ethno-cultural Empathy toward Syrian Refugees: A Mediation Model

Authors

  • Mustafa Özmen Bingol University, Turkiye
  • Abdullah Atli Inonu University, Turkiye

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.32674/bpp2xe37

Keywords:

attitude toward Syrians, contact quantity, ethnocultural empathy, university students, mediation model

Abstract

This study examined the mediating role of ethno-cultural empathy in the relationship between contact quantity and attitudes toward Syrian refugees in a sample of Turkish University students. Using a cross-sectional design in a sample of 275 university students (Mage = 22.46), an online measurement tool was applied that included demographic information, contact quantity, ethno-cultural empathy, and attitudes toward Syrian refugees. The results showed that ethno-cultural empathy was positively related to both contact quantity and attitude toward Syrian refugees. Moreover, ethno-cultural empathy was found to play an important mediating role in the relationship between frequency of contact and attitudes towards Syrians. This finding reveals that an increase in contact quantity is associated with an increase in ethno-cultural empathy and this relationship positively affects attitudes towards Syrians. In the attitude of the local people toward the Syrian refugees, socio-political strategies were discussed and suggestions for future work were made.      

Author Biographies

  • Mustafa Özmen, Bingol University, Turkiye

    MUSTAFA ÖZMEN, PhD, is a faculty member at Bingöl University, Department of Child Care and Youth Services. He is an expert with national publications on migration, microaggression in migrants, suicide, crisis intervention and focuses on professional exclusion processes of minority groups in his institution. E-mail: mozmen@bingol.edu.tr

  • Abdullah Atli, Inonu University, Turkiye

    ABDULLAH ATLİ, PhD, is a Professor of Guidance and Psychological Counselling at Inonu University. He is a nationally recognised expert on topics such as vocational guidance, bullying in schools, and is an internationally widely published academic whose research has focused on scientific research methods as well as psychological counselling practices in community college and the institution where he works. E-mail: abdullah.atli@inonu.edu.tr

     

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Published

2025-05-25