FAMILY VIOLENCE AND ITS RELATIONSHIP TO THE HOPELESSNESS AMONG A SAMPLE OF ELEMENTARY SCHOOLS STUDENTS IN JEDDAH

The current research aimed at identifying the correlation between family violence and hopelessness, and at revealing the variation in the levels or degrees of family violence, according to the age variable in a sample of high school students in Jeddah. This study has been applied on a random sample of (207) students at the secondary school level for the year 1435/1436 AH, where the Researcher applied the Physical Family Violence Scale and the Verbal Family Violence by Al Shorbaji and Al Harbi,(2012) and The Sense of Hopelessness Scale prepared by Abdullah,(1998) which has been standardized in the Saudi Arabian society by the Researcher. The results showed that there was a positive correlation between the dimensions of the relationship of family violence (physical-verbal) and the total degree and hopelessness among secondary school students. Furthermore, the results showed no statistically significant differences in the levels of family violence, according to the age variable. The search concluded by proposing a set of recommendations that can hopefully help reduce family violence in the community, and lead to the rehabilitation of abused children to develop their skills. The Researcher recommends the following: (1) raising the awareness of the negative effects of family violence for the hope to eliminate family violence practices in order to protect the society against children in both the present and the future, (2) developing the counseling and guidance programs to help in reducing the prevalence of family violence in the community, and (3) developing guidance programs for training the abused children on some of important social skills to enable them to develop friendships which will in turn enhance their self-confidence.