Beliefs and attitudes about gender violence in social work undergraduate students: a research in the university of Huelva

Abstract

Gender violence is a social and political problem that currently requires priority attention from public authorities. This paper shows the results obtained in the research on beliefs and sexist attitudes carried out on a sample of 141 undergraduate students enrolled in the Social Work degree at the University of Huelva. The “Inventory of Distorted Thinking about Women and Violence” (Echeburúa & Fernández-Montalvo 1997) and the “Inventory of Social Desirability” (Crowne & Marlowe 1960) were applied. The students were also asked about the training received about gender violence. The results show the persistence of sexist stereotypes among students, which makes it difficult to identify violence. As a conclusion, there is a need to include specific subjects on gender violence in the curricula. Therefore, the training of future professionals is essential to banish unwelcome attitudes when dealing with an appropriate intervention in this area.