Concern about the psychosocial effects of the currently increasing nuclear arms race has been raised in a 1982 American Psychiatric Association Task Force report. Seventy-five intermediate schoolchildren aged 11 to 12 years responded to a questionnaire in Salt Lake City, Utah, USA, focusing on various aspects of the nuclear arms debate. Children were aware of nuclear issues by the age of 12 and expressed a variety of perspectives on the realities of nuclear threat and implications for the future. Most disturbing was a pervading sense of fatalism.
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References
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