Research Article | Open Access

Perceived Threat of Terrorism, Stress Appraisal and Psychological Distress in College and University Students

    Nighat Yasmeen

    Centre for Clinical Psychology, University of the Punjab, Lahore, Pakistan

    Rukhsana Kausar

    Government College for Women University, Sialkot (GCWUS) Sialkot, Pakistan


Received
11 Aug, 2021
Accepted
02 Jan, 2022
Published
31 Dec, 2022

The study aims to investigate the relationship of perceived threat of terrorism, stress appraisal and psychological distress in College and University students. Four hundred students of ages 19 to 22 years (M = 20.01, SD = 1.05) were recruited from different Colleges and Universities of Lahore. The research protocol consisted of Terrorism Catastrophizing Scale (Sinclair & LoCicero, 2007), Stress Appraisal Measure (Peacock & Wong, 1990) and Impact of Event Scale-Revised (Horowitz et al., 1979). The data was analyzed by using Pearson product moment correlation and multiple regression analysis. The findings revealed that threat challenge, centrality, uncontrollable and stressfulness(subscales of stress appraisal) had significant positive relationship with helplessness, rumination, psychological distress, intrusion, avoidance and arousal (subscales of psychological distress), negative relationship of perceived threat of terrorism with appraisal of challenge, controllability by self and controllability by other. Moreover, the results showed that threat, centrality and rumination were significant positive predictors of psychological distress. Findings of the study will help in developing interventions for students who feel high level of psychological distress because of perceived threat of terrorism.

How to Cite this paper?


APA-7 Style
Yasmeen, N., Kausar, R. (2022). Perceived Threat of Terrorism, Stress Appraisal and Psychological Distress in College and University Students. Pakistan Journal of Psychological Research, 37(4), 653-663. https://doi.org/10.33824/PJPR.2022.37.4.39

ACS Style
Yasmeen, N.; Kausar, R. Perceived Threat of Terrorism, Stress Appraisal and Psychological Distress in College and University Students. Pak. J. Psychol. Res 2022, 37, 653-663. https://doi.org/10.33824/PJPR.2022.37.4.39

AMA Style
Yasmeen N, Kausar R. Perceived Threat of Terrorism, Stress Appraisal and Psychological Distress in College and University Students. Pakistan Journal of Psychological Research. 2022; 37(4): 653-663. https://doi.org/10.33824/PJPR.2022.37.4.39

Chicago/Turabian Style
Yasmeen, Nighat, and Rukhsana Kausar. 2022. "Perceived Threat of Terrorism, Stress Appraisal and Psychological Distress in College and University Students" Pakistan Journal of Psychological Research 37, no. 4: 653-663. https://doi.org/10.33824/PJPR.2022.37.4.39