Political Alienation Dimensions' Ability to Predict Students' Violence

Abstract

This study examines the extent to which political alienation and students' violence are spreading among university students and whether their spread is affected by the different demographic variables of student's gender, performance level and specialization. It further seeks to identify the ability of the political alienation dimensions to predict the commonness of students' violence. The study sample consists of (403) students enrolling at all public and private universities in Irbid Governorate. A multi-stage sample was used to select the participants. Two tools were used; one is used to measure the political alienation dimension while the other is devoted to measure students' violence dimension. The reliability and validity of these measures were verified. Findings have shown that the spreading range of most of the political alienation dimensions was of a medium degree, except for the lack of political competence, which was of a low degree. Results have also shown that political normlessness, disloyalty and political distrust, which are among the top dimensions of political alienation, were capable to predict the spread of students' violence.