Impact of Threat of Terrorist Attack on Social Interaction Anxiety and Death Anxiety among Young Adults

Iram Batool1, Fatima Zulfiqar2 & Ruqia Safdar Bajwa3

Abstract
Terrorism is one of the biggest challenges of the world and it is difficult to specify its reasons and impacts. It is a fear inducer among masses, and victimize people physically (directly) and psychologically (indirectly). Pakistan is one of those countries of the world in which such cruel acts i.e. suicide blasts, target killing and serial bombings, happen repeatedly. Experts believed that in such circumstances people might have high death anxiety, and social interaction
anxiety. Presented study was aimed to explore these variables during the time of
threat. Study was completed in two phases, Phase I was the time when institutions
were under the threat of terrorist attack and phase II was when they come out of
high alerts (A-B design). Data was collected from two main institutions of Multan
City i.e. Bahauddin Zakariya University and Nishter Medical College. Death
Anxiety Scale and Social Interaction Anxiety scale were used. Sample of 205
individuals age ranged from 18-27 years old were included. For analysis, paired
sample T-test was done to explore the differences. Findings of the study revealed
significant differences, Social interaction (p<0.01) and death anxiety (p<0.01) was
significantly high in pre test phase and coping strategies is more likely to be
adopted when exposed with anxiety. Moreover, it can be speculated that terrorist
threats have strong impact on psychological state of individuals.

Keyword: Terrorism attack, social interaction anxiety, death anxiety, young
adults.