Self-esteem of socially anxious and non- anxious university students

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the Self-esteem of socially anxious university students. A total sample of 500 students comprising of 250 males and 250 females ranging between 17-25 years in age, with the educational background of 1st year to M.Sc final year were selected from different universities. Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale and the Rosenberg Self-esteem Scale were used to assess social anxiety disorder and the selfesteem of students. It was hypothesized that Social anxiety will be greater among female students as compared to male students. Additionally it was assumed that the self-esteem of socially anxious students would be low as compared to non-anxious students. The results were computed using t-test, chi- square, and all hypotheses were supported by the results. The findings of this research indicated that female students scored high on Liebowitz Social Anxiety Scale as compared to male students. Socially anxious students scored low on the Rosenberg self-esteem scale as compared to non-anxious students. The limitations and recommendations of the study are mentioned in the last section

Religiosity and anxiety disorder in peshawar religiosity and anxiety disorder in Peshawar

The present research examined the relationship between degree of religiosity and level of anxiety in males and females suffering from anxiety disorder and those who were not suffering from any psychological disorder. A sample of 80 adults was taken from the hospitals and other areas of Peshawar city. It was hypothesized that the subjects suffering from generalized anxiety disorder would be having a lower degree of religiosity as compared to those who were not suffering from any psychological disorder; and females would have a higher level of anxiety and higher degree of religiosity as compared to males. IPAT Anxiety Scale and Index of Religiosity were administered on the subjects. The results supported the main hypotheses and it was found that both males and females suffering from generalized anxiety disorder had a lower degree of religiosity as compared to those males and females who were not suffering from any psychological disorder. The results demonstrated that anxious females had a higher level of anxiety, as compared to anxious males. The degree of religiosity was found to be higher in males than in females in both anxious and nonanxious groups

Specific learning difficulties: implications for social psychological functioning

The present research examined the prevalence of specific learning disabilities and its implication for social psychological functioning among girls. The research was carried out in two phases. The first phase comprised of development of a screening check list and assessing the I.Q level of learning disable and non-disable girls. Raven Colour Progressive Matrices was used for the assessment of level of intelligence. The second phase involved Investigation of psychological co morbidity among learning disable and non-disable girls, and 'Human Figure Drawing test' was used for the assessment of psychological co morbidity. The sample of phase one comprised of 200 hundred girls students who were initially assessed on screening checklist to find out the presence of symptoms of specific learning disabilities. Those girls students who responded yes to twelve or more than twelve symptoms were selected for further assessment and rest of them were excluded as they were not showing symptoms of learning disabilities. Seventy five girls out of two hundred were diagnosed as suffering from specific learning disabilities. Similar assessment procedure was adopted with seventy five non disable girls students. It was hypothesized that poor self image, anxiety, depression and aggression will be more prevalent among girls suffering from specific learning disabilities than those without specific learning disabilities. Results supported our hypotheses. It was found that girls suffering from specific leaning disabilities showed greater number of emotional indicators on Human Figure Drawing Test measuring poor self image, anxiety, aggression and depression as compared to non disable girls who showed lesser number ofemotional indicators. The relationship between specific learning disabilities and psychological co morbidity was evident and supported some of the previous findings

Frequency and trends of cigarette smoking among peshawar University students

To determine the frequency of cigarette smoking among students of Peshawar University and compare it with the previous study conducted in year 2000. A cross sectional study was conducted and data was collected on a self-administered questionnaire from the participants selected from the departments of Peshawar University. The study was conducted among the students of Peshawar,University from Sep 2003 to March 2004. A sample of 550 students was invited to participate in this study. "After signing the consent, information on demographics, smoking habits, media influences and health histories were obtained using the standardized questionnaire. The data after;auditing was analysed using SPSS version 12.1. The results of 436 participants was analysed further and 114 questionnaires were found either blank or incomplete. Current smokers in the study were 119 [27%] and ex smokers were 69 [16%] There were 114 [34%] and 5 [5%] smokers among 336 male and 100 female students, respectively. The mean age of starting smoking was 17 years [range 28 to 6 years] and 87% smoker's students had one or more smokers in their families. The brand of cigarettes favored by 42% of the smokers was Gold Leaf and 90 percent of the smokers claimed they were influenced by the advertisement in the electronic and print media. 85% of the smokers were aware of the health warnings on cigarette packets. Comparing the result of this study 2 "Year 03" to the study 1 "Year 2000", the number of smokers in the University students has significantly increased to 27% from 15%[p <.001] overall; in male to 34% from 20% and females to 5% from 1%, respectively

Prevalence of cigarette smoking among Peshawar university students

The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of smoking among University students in Peshawar. A simple random sample of 511 students was invited to participate in this study. A structured questionnaire was used to elicit information on demographics, smoking habits, media influences and health histories from the participants of the study. The smokers in the sample population were 77 [15%] among them 99% were male and 1% were female with a mean age of 21 years. Seven% of the smokers started smoking before the age of 10, 26% at ages 11-16 and 57% at ages 17-21 and 10% after age 21. The influencing factor of smokers in the family was evident with 10% of fathers, 14.3% brothers and 13% cousins being cigarette smokers. The brand of cigarette favored by 42% of the smokers was Gold Leaf and 91% of the smokers claimed that they were influenced by cigarette advertisements. The social smokers were 14%, and 25% smoked due to peer pressure and another 25% smoked only in College. Less than 40% of the smokers had a hobby or did regular exercise to keep fit and 26% complained of illnesses related to ear, nose and throat. However it was encouraging to note that 56% of the smokers wanted to quit the habit. The information gathered in this study facilitates the understanding of various influencing factors that revolve around young smokers. It also highlights the need to help young smokers quit the habit, by providing them healthy choices that may include counseling, and nicotine replacement therapy, among many others