Gender differences and the influence of classroom discussion on adolescents' relationship to the threat of nuclear war after international crisis
The purpose of this research was to explore the differences in attitudes of females and males to the stress of living under the threat of nuclear war with respect to sex and nuclear education. The differences in attitudes of 231 adolescents, from five California schools, aged 15-18, were analyzed. They were asked three questions regarding nuclear war within 2 weeks of the shooting down of Korean Airliner 007 in 1983. A quantitative content analysis was used to assess gender and educational influences on the responses to the three questions which were: Do I think there will be a war Do I care Why and What do I think about fallout shelters Theoretical constructs of Chodorow and Gilligan were used to relate recent developments in the psychology of women to issues of war and peace. There were significant gender differences with respect to adolescents' opinions on nuclear war. Compared to males, the expression of loss of family or friends, fear, humanitarian concerns, and blaming was significantly higher in females, while knowledge of fallout shelters was significantly lower. For both males and females, verbal anger was expressed equally. One hundred twelve students who had no education on nuclear war were compared with 119 students who had informal classroom discussion on nuclear war. With informal nuclear education, females had decreased expression of local loss and males increased expression of self loss. Both males and females with informal nuclear education had decreased their expression of blame. For females, the knowledge of fallout shelters was increased. Both males and females cited the shooting down of KAL/007, only 12.6% suggesting that psyche numbing can occur for knowledge as well as affect. Both males and females offered few solutions to nuclear war, a possible manifestation of an attitude of hopelessness in our youth.
- Research Organization:
- Fielding Inst., Santa Barbara, CA (USA)
- OSTI ID:
- 6887219
- Resource Relation:
- Other Information: Thesis (Ph. D.)
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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