Increasing fear of nuclear war among adolescents before the outbreak of the Persian Gulf War

Abstract

KARI POIKOLAINEN, RIITTA KANERVA, JOUKO LO 8 NNQVIST Poikolainen K, Kanerva K, Lö nnqvist J. Increasing fear of nuclear war among adolescents before the outbreak of the Persian Gulf War. Nord J Psychiatry 1998;52:197 -202. Oslo. ISSN 0803-9488. After the occupation of Kuwait by Iraq, tension grew in the Persian Gulf area, and war became increasingly likely until it broke out on 16 January 1991. Uncertainty about the magnitude of warfare and the possible use of nuclear, chemical, and biological weapons may have caused fear all over the world. We studied the perceived threat of nuclear war among adolescents between 4-21 December 1990 (n = 1137) and 15 -16 January 1991 (n = 336) in Finland. Increases were found in both the frequency 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 adjusting for potential confounders in regression analyses, the adolescents studied in January, just before the onset of the Gulf War, feared nuclear war clearly more often and thought about it more often than the group studied in the previous December. Fear of nuclear war was also positively related to time spent reading newspapers, the number of positive life events, and the tendency to adopt neurotic defense styles among both sexes. Among girls, fear was also positively related to trait anxiety. Among boys, higher fear levels were related to lower self-esteem. We conclude that the threat of modern warfare may spread fear among a major part of the adolescents living far from the area of actual conflict.

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