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Emel Altın & Murat Kasımoğlu
turn the motivation of young people into participation in Şırnak City Center seemed to be
weak (mean of item=2,51). Although the participation of young people and civil society
relationships supported participation (mean of item=3,05), the activities that young peo-
ple can actively participate in were not enough (mean of item=2,67). It seemed that the
relationships that young people had with decision makers are not good enough (mean of
item=2,87).
Personal Characteristics: Discarding traditions leads to the creation of more individual-
ized lifestyles and policies by changing the relationship between the individual and so-
ciety. Today’s young people have a high self-esteem, an individualistic view of events, a
lack of loyalty and impatience (Bozkuş, 2009). Instead of using physical spaces, youth
prefer to express their ideas using internet technology and virtual networks (The Smart
Work, 2009). They are less concerned with policy and democratic systems (Delli Carpini,
2000: 341; Henn, Weinstein and Wring, 2002: 185). The political indifference of young
people derives from the life cycle of political participation, from youth’s postmodern po-
litical forms of participation and from youth’s political perceptions and attitudes (Quintel-
ier, 2007: 166-170). Characteristically, the freedom and participation tendencies of youth
were expected to be higher at digital age, however, this tendency was seen to remain
intermediate level in Şırnak (mean of item=2,98). It was also seen that the participation of
young people did not show continuity and they were not frugal (mean of item=2,88) and
perseverance (mean of item=2,86) enough to use efficiently the available resources for
their participation.
Hypothesis Tests:
Prior to the testing of hypotheses, it was determined whether the dimensions of the po-
litical participation scale were appropriate for normal distribution. According to Kolmogo-
rov-Smirnov test results, it was understood that the average values of the dimensions of
political participation were not normalyl distributed according to age, gender, educational
field and membership to organizations engaged in activities related to youth (p = 0.000
<=0.05). Therefore, one-way analysis of variance could not be used to test hypotheses.
Instead of one-way analysis of variance, the nonparametric Kruskal-Wallis H test (k-sam-
ple) and Mann Whitney U test (2 samples) were used.
