TurnItIn has access to a much wider set of data, including every essay ever submitted to the University.
What this means in everyday terms is that students tend to use a finite set of resources - the same things for their assignments. So references lists will play a bit part in similarity scores, just because there are 200 students using the same resources.
Similarly, students will tend to use the same quotations and so on, and this bumps up the TurnItIn similarity score
I'd not worry too much. the 38 probably just shows that you've not been too imaginative with your sources, it does not necessarily mean that you've done anything wrong.