Fear of future terrorism: Associated psychiatric burden

Objective: To find out the impact of terrorism on mental health and behavioral patterns of men and women. Place and Duration of Study: It was conducted in Islamabad (capital city of Pakistan) over a period of one month in September – October 2011. Study Design: It was a cross sectional survey. Materials & Methods: The main study sample comprised of equal number of male and females (25 males and 25 females). Their age ranging from 22 to 60 and their education level was Bachelors to PhD level. The target population belonged to various professions like doctors, engineers, lawyers, students (Colleges and Universities) and others. Purposive sampling technique was used and data were collected with the help of questionnaire on : Concerns and Fears about Terrorism, Thinking and Talking about Terrorism, Measuring Attitudes about Terrorism, Mental Health Impacts of Terrorism, Behavioral Impacts of Terrorism and Effectiveness of Public Institutions. Participants were approached personally and their consent was taken before administration of questionnaires. T-test was computed to see the effects of terrorism on mental health and behavior patterns. Results: There was a significant difference shown by male and female included in the sample on Concerns about Threat of Terrorism (Mean score males = 8.00 and Mean score females = 8.48). Male and female showed a significant difference on Thinking and Talking about Terrorism. A significant difference among the attitudes of male and female was found. A non significant difference on the impacts of Terrorism on Mental Health was seen among male and female participants. Regarding Impacts of Terrorism on the behavior of males and females, a non significant difference was shown. Significant difference was seen in male and female on the Effectiveness of Public Institutions. Conclusion: The terrorist attacks significantly affect the mental health of the individuals. They became depressed, anxious and worried. These psychological feelings also affect their behavior.

JPMA. The Journal of the Pakistan Medical Association, 2014

To determine the association of terrorism with psychiatric morbidity by Hospital Anxiety Depression scale among medical students in Karachi, Pakistan. The questionnaire based cross-sectional survey was conducted from February to March 2011 and comprised students of the Institute of Physical and Medical Rehabilitation and the Dow Medical College, Dow University of Health Sciences, Karachi. The study tool was a validated Hospital Anxiety Depression scale questionnaire. The data was analysed on SPSS 16. Factor analysis was performed to check which factors had the most influence. Overall there were 1036 respondents. The impact of terrorism on physical, social and mental health was 40 (3.9%), 178 (17.2%) and 818 (79%) respectively. There was an association of terrorism in 980 (84.6%) respondents with psychiatric morbidity. There was an association of terrorism with psychiatric morbidity in majority of respondents. The significant risk factors were age, gender, physical, mental and social...

Pakistan Social Sciences Review, 2021

The study investigated the psychometric parameters of the Terrorism Anxiety Scale (TAS) (Zafar et al., 2020) to verify and maintain the norms of a reliable and valid assessment measure. The survey method was used to collect TAS responses from teenagers aged 13 to 19 in Lahore, Karachi, Sahiwal, Haveli Lakhan, and Gujranwala. The sample was drawn using a convenient sampling strategy. The reliability and validity of the scale were assessed by using confirmatory factor analysis that utilized structural equation modeling. The model was refined and modified utilizing the structural equation modeling technique, which gave construct validity standards for the twofactor TAS model, substantial test-retest reliability, and acceptable model fit indices. Internal consistency was also found to be extremely significant. The findings confirmed the construct's high reliability as well as moderate convergent and discriminant validity norms. The construct validity of the model may be revised in future studies involving larger samples from all regions of Pakistan to achieve a high degree of generalizability.

2014

Terrorism is a disruptive man-made disaster event challenging human health and wellbeing. It is a hostile activity which brings about much casualty, even death. It not only causes physical casualties but also brings about psychological morbidity and can lead to long term mental disorders. The effects of terrorist attacks on people's psychological health covers a wide range such as acute stress symptoms to long term disorders like Post-traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). The psychological disorder due to traumatic distress is treated with psychotherapies such as psychosocial intervention, psychological debriefing, psychological first aid care, psychological counseling services, and psychoeducation. Government is supporting state and local public health departments to develop efficient public health preparedness planning programs in case of emergency situations. There are some newer approaches working towards enhancing health security and managing responses to a psychological impact of a disaster event like a terrorist attack.

Asian Research Journal of Arts & Social Sciences

The study investigated glocalized terrorism as a predictive study of psychological symptoms and socioeconomic status on herdsmen violent attack in Anambra state. A Total number of two hundred and eighteen (218) individuals in Ayamelum and Anambra West local Government Area both in Anambra state; served as participant for the study. The study utilized non-probability (convenient sampling technique). Their age ranged from 22 to71 years and their mean age was 23.20 with standard deviation of 4.07. Terrorism Catastrophizing Scale (TCS) by Sinclair and LoCicero (2007) and Four-Dimensional Symptom Questionnaire (4DSQ) by Terluin (1996) were used to generate data. The study adopted Correlational design and Multiple Regression statistics was used to analyse the data. The analysis of the data showed that psychological symptom such as anxiety predicted herdsmen violent attack, while psychological symptoms like distress, depression, somatisation and socio-economic-status also did not predict h...

2007

The aim of the study is to investigate Arab university students' fearing future terrorism: Perceived personal, national, regional and international threats of terrorism. It aims to examine gender differences in fear of terrorism. Moreover it examines the determinants of fear of terrorism. A sample of 188 students (Mutah University, Jordan) was randomly selected. A questionnaire was developed based on the existing scales. A construct validity of the scale was estimated by the calculating the correlation between Terrorism Catastrophizing Scale and the current Fear of Terrorism Scale and found a positive significant relationship (0.564, α= 0.000), a sign of strong validity of the scale. A Reliability of the scale is strong and was estimated by Cronbach's alpha and was 0.889. Findings of this study reveals that students concerned 42% that they personally about themselves, a friend or relative being the victim of future terrorist attack in Jordan. Also students are worried that there will be another terrorist attack on Jordan soil, region and global in the near future with average of 5.4 (54%), 5.3(535), and 6(60%) respectively. Factor analysis produced three factors explaining 63.9% of the variance, the first factor explained (personal threat) 41.9%% of the variance, the second factor (national threat) explained 14% of the total variance and the third factor (external threats ―regional and global‖) explained 7.8% of the variance. Multiple regression analysis show a significant impact (F=8.741, α=0.00) of demographical variables;

Behavioral Sciences

Terrorism, though not well-defined, is a violent act that has been shown to have longstanding effects on the mental health of those who witness it. The aim of this general literature review is to explore the effect that terrorism has on posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), major depressive disorder (MDD) and anxiety disorders, as well as the bio-psycho-social determinants that mediate its impact. This paper describes the prevalence, risk factors, protective factors, common presentations and interventions identified for PTSD, depression and anxiety disorders occurring following terrorist attacks. We conducted a literature search in MEDLINE using a number of keywords detailed below. After applying inclusion and exclusion criteria, we kept 80 articles, which we summarized in tabular form. A majority of articles found detailed the impact of terrorism on PTSD, and took place in a Western, mainly American setting. The main factors that impacted the presentation of mental illness include ...

The Lancet Psychiatry, 2019

Terror is a psychological state. Historically, most studies of terrorism focused on its societal purpose and structural consequences rather than mental health effects. That emphasis began to change shortly before the Sept 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. A vast expansion of research into post-traumatic stress disorder accompanied revisions to the classification of mental health disorders. The effect of terrorist incidents on those people now deemed vulnerable, both directly and indirectly, was actively sought. However, a review of more than 400 research articles (mostly published after Sept 11) on the association between terrorism and mental health reached the largely overlooked conclusion that terrorism is not terrorising-at least not in a way that causes a greater than expected frequency of post-traumatic stress disorder than other traumatic events. This conclusion is surprising given the emphasis on the psychological effects of terrorism in political discourse, media commentary, contemporary culture, and academic inquiry. Authorities might prefer to encourage an interpretation of terrorist incidents that highlights fortitude and courage rather than psychological vulnerability.

International Journal of African Society, Cultures and Traditions Vol.8, No.1, pp.38-73, March 2020, 2020

This study investigated Terrorism Cognition and Violent Extremism as influenced by Cultural Orientation and Social Anxiety in Nigerian, using 200 Northern Nigerian Samples, and 200 Eastern Nigerian Samples. Design was cross-sectional, with MANOVA and descriptive statistics. Findings: Terrorism Cognition, and Violent Extremism are significantly influenced by Cultural Orientation, and Social Anxiety, which differ significantly for Eastern and Northern Nigerian samples; Terrorism cognition as significantly influenced by Cultural Orientation (P≤ .05≥ .015 & .019; P≤ .001 ≥ .000), and Social Anxiety (p≤ .05≥ .038 & .014; p≤ .001 ≥ .000) is above average for Northern samples, but below average for Eastern samples; Knowledge of Violent Extremism as significantly influenced by Cultural Orientation (P≤ .05≥ .036), and Social Anxiety (P≤ .05≥ .021 & .015) is above average for Eastern samples, but below average for Northern samples. Recommendation: Counter-terrorism and anti-terrorism policies...