INCREASING FEAR OF NUCLEAR-WAR AMONG ADOLESCENTS BEFORE THE OUTBREAK OF THE PERSIAN-GULF-WAR

After the occupation of Kuwait by Iraq, tension grew in the Persian Gu lf area, and war became increasingly likely until it broke out on 16 J anuary 1991. Uncertainty about the magnitude of warfare and the possib le use of nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons may have caused fe ar all over the world. We studied the perceived threat of nuclear war among adolescents between 4-21 December 1990 (n = 1137) and 15-16 Janu ary 1991 (n = 336) in Finland. Increases were found in both the freque ncy of thinking about and the frequency of fearing nuclear war between December and January among both girls and boys. Both the frequency of fear and its increase were higher among girls than boys. After adjust ing for potential confounders in regression analyses, the adolescents studied in January, just before the onset of the Gulf War, feared nucl ear war clearly more often and thought about it more often than the gr oup studied in the previous December. Fear of nuclear war was also pos itively related to time spent reading newspapers, the number of positi ve life events, and the tendency to adopt neurotic defense styles amon g both sexes. Among girls, fear was also positively related to trait a nxiety. Among boys, higher fear levels were related to lower self-este em. We conclude that the threat of modern warfare may spread fear amon g a major part of the adolescents living far from the area of actual c onflict.