Turkish elementary school students' perceptions of local and global terrorism

Abstract

Introduction. Historically, terrorism has occurred in various regions of the world and has been considered a local problem until the September, 11 terrorist attacks on the United States in 2001. After 9/11, terrorism has become a global concern. The definition of terrorism has changed from a violent act of a group of local people against their own government for politi-cal gains to a violent act of people of a country against another country for political attention. Now a global phenomenon, terrorism has become analogous to a state of war, affecting chil-dren and families all over the world and creating a demand for mental health services directed at helping people cope with their feelings following terrorist attacks. This study investigates Turkish elementary school students' perceptions of worldwide terrorism. Method. Participants comprised 190 fourth and fifth grade elementary school students (98 boys and 92 girls) from four elementary schools in Istanbul. 98 students were in fourth grade and 92 students were in fifth grade. Students' ages ranged from 9 to 15 (M=10.66, SD=0.76). The Questionnaire of Children's Perception of Terror (QoCPoT) was developed by the au-thors and is used in this study. Data were analyzed in SPSS 14. Results. The results indicate that most children know that terrorist attacks took place in Tur-key, the United States and around the world. Students most frequently defined terrorism as 'the killing of innocent people' and categorized terrorists as 'bandits.' They report feeling bad when they hear the word 'terrorism.' Findings suggest that there are gender differences in children's perception of terrorism in the affective and cognitive domains. Discussion. This study provides preliminary information about Turkish children's perceptions of local and global terrorism in cognitive and affective domains of functioning. In general, most children in the study are knowledgeable about the terrorist attacks took place in Turkey, the United States and around the world. It is likely that the media has had an impact on the amount of information children receive on terrorism. Children's responses show that their definition of terrorism is akin to the original definition of terrorism.