Impact of Fear of Terrorism, Televised News Media Exposure and Religious Belief on Mental Health of University Students

Author: Adeela Shabnam

Supervisor: Ms. Fatima Ali Bokhari

Degree: BS

Year: 2005-2009

University: Centre for Clinical Psychology, Punjab University, Lahore, Pakistan

Abstract

The present study aimed to investigate the Impact of Fear of Terrorism, Televised News Media Exposure, and Religious Belief on Mental Health of University Students. For this purpose a sample of 150 students was taken from Punjab University which included 78 males and 72 females. Age range of the sample was 17 to 28 years. Purposive sampling was used to collect the data. Measures used in the study included Terrorism Catasrophizing Scale, Televised News Media Exposure Instrument, Religious Belief Scale and three subscales of Symptom Checklist-R including Depression, Anxiety, and LFT. Pearson Product Moment Correlation Coefficient was used to analyze the data. The result findings suggested that first hypothesis was confirmed as findings revealed that there was a positive relationships between Fear of Terrorism and Mental Health on threesubscales of Depression (÷2=,349**) Anxiety (÷2 =.369**) and LFT (÷2=336**). Second hypothesis was rejected as it was evident from the results that there was a negative relationship between Televised News Media Exposure and Mental Health. The results were significant only on the subscale of LFT (÷2=-.190*). The third hypothesis was accepted that suggested a negative relationship between religious belief and mental health however the results were only significant on the subscale of Depression (÷2= -.190*).

Keywords: Depression, Mental Health, Anxiety.

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