DefinePK

Abstract

The present study investigated the impact of Unrelenting Media Exposure on experiences of Vicarious Trauma among adolescents in Pakistan. For this a purposive sample comprising 150 boys and 150 girls with an age range of 12 to 18 years participated in this research study. Impact of Event Scale (Horowitz, Wilner, & Alvarez, 1979) was used to measure the symptoms of vicarious trauma regarding the 16th December Peshawar incident. A self-report questionnaire was designed to measure the unrelenting media exposure of organized violence. Findings of the present study indicated that media exposure significantly predicted vicarious trauma (β (298) = 113.71, p<.001). A significant difference (p<.001) was found among the students of  three institutions that are public, private and government schools in the context of their response to unrelenting trauma exposure  and gender differences. A limitation to the study is that the research was conducted in the twin cities of Pakistan only due to easy access and availability of respondent data. A more meaningful picture could have been obtained if the research was conducted in schools of Peshawar.