Reactions of Indian Children's after 26/11 Terrorist Attacks

The present research paper deals with reactions of Indian children's to the 26/11 terrorist attacks. To assess the knowledge of terrorism to the school going children's of Eastern Uttar Pradesh who was miles away from the actual incident. The study used a survey design with a QCPT questionnaire administered to 195 students (111 boys and 84 girls) in 20 public schools of standards 5-7. The questionnaire was administered within 3 week of occurrence of November, 26 terrorist attacks on the Mumbai in 2008. The mean age of the participants was 11.60 years (SD=1.42, range=9-14). The results indicate that most children's known the terrorist attack took place in Mumbai, Varanasi, Delhi, United States and all over the world. Students most frequently define terrorism as a something bad, committing crime robbery, 'the killing of innocent people' create terror and categorized terrorist as 'bandits'. They report feeling fear-horror when they hear the world 'terrorism'. This study provides preliminary information about Eastern Uttar Pradesh children's perception of terrorism in cognitive and affective domains of functioning. In general most children's in this study are knowledgeable about the terrorist attacks took place in India and around the world. It is likely that the media has had an impact on the amount of information children's receive on terrorism. Children's responses show that their definition of terrorism is akin to the original definition of terrorism.