This study evaluates the impact of a comprehensive, school-based “Social-Based Policing” program on high school students' attitudes toward security forces in a security-sensitive region (Sirnak, Türkiye). It specifically investigates the moderating roles of gender, vicarious family experience and grade level through the interdisciplinary lens of social work and religious education.
A quasi-experimental design was employed using a pretest–posttest model with 310 high school students who participated in a multi-modal intervention comprising 19 distinct social and educational activities. Data were analyzed using ANCOVA, MANOVA and Multiple Linear Regression to control for pre-existing attitudes and assess the specific contribution of socio-demographic variables.
The regression model explained a substantial proportion of the variance in posttest attitudes (R2 = 0.719). While the intervention significantly improved students' “Police Image” and “Emotional Affinity,” it was less effective in altering “Professional Attitudes.” Female students demonstrated significantly more positive changes. Crucially, a significant negative relationship was found between grade level and attitude, indicating that older adolescents are more resistant to intervention. Furthermore, students with prior negative family experiences with the police exhibited persistent institutional distrust.
The study utilizes a single-group design without a control group, which limits the ability to fully rule out external variables. Additionally, the sample is restricted to a specific geographical context, and the measure of “family police contact” did not distinguish between the nature of the interaction (e.g. victim vs. suspect).
The findings suggest that school-based security interventions are most effective when targeted at early adolescence (9th and 10th grades). Programs should integrate soft-skill activities (arts, drama) alongside security education and require the active involvement of school social workers to mitigate the effects of vicarious negative family experiences. To surmount the barrier of intergenerational distrust, security policies must be integrated with the restorative mechanisms of school social work and the value-based grounding of religious education.
The study demonstrates that reframing the police role from a strict law enforcer to a social stakeholder can help de-stigmatize authority in post-conflict regions. It highlights the necessity of an interdisciplinary collaboration between law enforcement, religious educators and social services to foster social cohesion.
Unlike studies relying on simple comparisons, this research employs robust regression models to examine youth-police interaction in a non-Western context and from a school social work and values education perspective. It offers unique empirical evidence regarding the age-cynicism effect and the intergenerational transmission of institutional distrust.
