Effects of the nuclear war threat on children and teenagers: Implications for professionals.

Schwebel, Milton

doi:10.1111/j.1939-0025.1982.tb01450.x

Cited by 93 publications

(54 citation statements)

References 2 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Although correlational relationships do not validate the causal implications made by Escalona (1982). Schwebel (1982), Mack (1982, 1983), and Dodds (1983), these are necessary conditions for the validation of the relationships. Beginning with elementary-age childre, longitudinal data to assess the causal implications seem warranted and positively supported by these findings.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 93%

“…A sizable portion of children, adolescents, and adults have become concerned and worried to some degree about the ever present nuclear threat (e.g., Beardslee & Mack, 1982;Escalona, 1965Escalona, , 1982Kramer, Kalick, & Millburn, 1983;Mayton, in press;Schwebel, 1963Schwebel, , 1965Schwebel, , 1982. Elder (1965) suggested that this "possibility of thermonuclear war and all the attendent cold war tensions should produce a high incidence and large variety of emotional responses'' (p. 120).…”

mentioning

confidence: 97%

“…The reality of the nuclear threat has been predicted to create powerlessness (Escalona, 1982), helplessness (Dodds, 1983;Schwebel, 1982), and cynicism (Escalona). Thus, locus of control is implicated as a relevant personality, dependent variable.…”

mentioning

confidence: 98%

See 2 more Smart Citations

Personality Correlates of Nuclear War Threat Perception

Mayton

1986

The Journal of Social Psychology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 93%

mentioning

confidence: 97%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Personality Correlates of Nuclear War Threat Perception

Mayton

1986

The Journal of Social Psychology

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

“…Interestingly, during the Cuban missile crisis only 25% of the young people sampled felt that there would be a nuclear war, as compared to 50% immediately after the Berlin crisis. Schwebel interpreted the disparity as follows: "The heightened threat of annihilation, it seems, nourished an irrational optimism, an insistent need to believe that there would be no war, nourished, that is, a denial of the obviously greater possibility o f war" (14). Although this is an interesting and provocative interpretation, one might ask how well those young people really understood what was going on.…”

Section: Children and The Nuclear Threatmentioning

confidence: 97%

Growing up in the nuclear age. Psychological development in the face of uncertainty

Halfon

1984

J. Contin. Educ. Health Prof.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

The psychological development of children growing up in the nuclear age is currently the subject of much discussion. A ~~ he spectre of nuclear war is an uneasy mix-T ture of known and unknown. The destruction revealed in bomb-test footage and post-Hiroshima/Nagasaki documentaries provides only a glimpse of the devastating power unleashed by man's ingenuity. These images have become part of the texture of our culture. For nearly forty years, we have been living in the shadow of a nuclear nightmare. This shadow has become darker as nuclear arsenaLs multiply and spread, as technological advances make first-strike more tempting, and as the inertia of aggressive coldwar posturing continues virtually unchallenged. 1984 by The Regents o f the University of CaliforniaThis symbolic nightmare of our modern culture has become a real nightmare for some children. Here are the words of twelve-year-old Catherine Rich responding to a Boston Globe interview in 1981:I had a nightmare of the bomb floating toward me and I could feel my blood spurting all over the place; but now it's better knowing it will be so fast. I feel scared but relieved at the same time. It's like having cancer and at least being told you have it (1).Statements like Catherine's are commonly cited in both lay and professional journals as our society begins to reflect on what it means to grow up in the nuclear age. Educators, psychologists, sociologists, and health professionals have contributed to this analysis.Catherine's dream exemplifies the difficulty in approaching the problem of growing up in the nuclear age. Her words are compelling and strong. In an attempt to understand the uncertainty and finality that nuclear war represents, she has invoked the analogy of cancer to explain her feelings and interpret what this dream meant to her. Cancer and nuclear war are both complex concepts, and yet both are quite simple in their finality. Both can serve as a source of anxiety and fear as well as confusion and misunderstanding. Is Catherine an overly sensitive, articulate child who is more affected than her peers by the world she lives in, or are most children having similar dreams?Powerful dream recollections and other statements by children about nuclear war raise many 36 MOBIUS questions about our culture, and about the pressure on children and the challenges they face. h s long as the content of dreams has been recorded, people have dreamt of destruction in imagery that reflects the particular symbols of their culture. What does it mean for children to incorporate modern cultural symbols into their dream world? Surely dreams such as Catherine's must be troubling to parents and challenging to the adult stereotype of the sweet repose of the sleeping child. Are disturbing dreams about nuclear war symptomatic of a disturbed child or a disturbed culture?The popular psychology of our post-Freudian age has promoted psychological sophistication and familiarity with a vocabulary that encourages the analysis of most social phenomena in terms o f their psychological ...

show abstract

“…A child victim of parental abuse may be fearful or ambivalent of a relationship with a parent~r other adult (Kempe & Kempe, 1978). Escalona (1965) and Schwebel (1982) noted the lack of trust that many school-age children express in response to societal violence.…”

Section: Children's Response To Violencementioning

confidence: 97%

Mighty mouse and MX missiles: Children in a violent society

Allen

Pettit

1987

Early Childhood Educ J

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Ours is a society in which violence, or the threat of violence, is a common experience for many children. Children's fears of the dark, the boogie man, and the Headless Horseman have evolved to include fears of Darth Vadar, meltdown, and nuclear war.With our concern about violence in the home, in the neighborhood, on television, and between nations, we also must be aware of the effects of conflict and even the threat of destruction of life itself on young children. And as concerned adults, we must be prepared and willing to help children deal with living in a violent society.

show abstract

Effects of the nuclear war threat on children and teenagers: Implications for professionals.

Cited by 93 publications

References 2 publications

Personality Correlates of Nuclear War Threat Perception

Personality Correlates of Nuclear War Threat Perception

Growing up in the nuclear age. Psychological development in the face of uncertainty

Mighty mouse and MX missiles: Children in a violent society

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About