Nuclear attitudes and reactions: associations with depression, drug use, and quality of life

For 40 years the world has lived with the threat of nuclear war and, recently, with the possibility of nuclear power plant accidents. Although virtually every generation must confront various national or international crises, the threat of nuclear war is unprecedented in its destructive potential. This study is an attempt to assess attitudes and amount of distress associated with the ever-present threat of nuclear war and the possibility of accidents at nuclear power plants. The Nuclear Attitudes Questionnaire (NAQ) consists of 15 items and was administered to 722 young adults who have grown up in the nuclear age. The items were found to reflect four latent factors of nuclear concern, nuclear support, fear of the future, and nuclear denial, all of which in turn represent a second-order construct of nuclear anxiety. Women reported significantly more nuclear concern, less nuclear support, more fear of the future, and less nuclear denial than did men. In latent-variable models, nuclear anxiety was found to be significantly associated with less purpose in life, less life satisfaction, more powerlessness, more depression, and more drug use. It is concluded that the threat of nuclear war and accidents is significantly related to psychological distress and may disturb normal maturational development.