Mental Health Consequences of Terrorism Exposures Among Youth in Pakistani Society

Abstract

This study examines the mental health consequences of terrorism exposures among youth in Pakistani society. Using Taaro Yamni formula to draw the sample, research approached 399 youth aged 15-24 years. As a research tool, Impact of Event Scale (IESR) was used with slight modifications. Using Statistical Package of Social Sciences (SPSS) v. 21and Stata v. 20, a multinomial model was applied to explore the relation between different variables. The major findings of the study are that a person who has personal exposure to terrorist attack is the worst affected and the person who was informed by someone is least affected to constant threat to terrorism. Thus, it is suggested that terrorism is threatening mental health of youth therefore counter terrorism policies should be extended to social dimensions. Moreover, severe impacts should be taken into consideration and devise a mechanism to provide counseling services to the victims free of cost. it is imperative to explore the impacts of terrorism on other groups of society including children, and women etc.