Prof. Diab M. Al-Badayneh Prof. Aref Al -Khattar         Dr.Khawla Al Hasan

IKCRS                                                                    Dept. of Justice, Law, and Society                                   IKCRS, Amman 
Dept. of Sociology, MU, JORDAN                             CALU California, PA, USA                                              MU, JORDAN

Abstract 


The aim of the study is to investigate Arab university students‘ fearing future terrorism: Perceived personal, national, regional and international threats of terrorism. It aims to examine gender differences in fear of terrorism. Moreover it examines the determinants of fear of terrorism. A sample of 188 students (Mutah University, Jordan) was randomly selected. A questionnaire was developed based on the existing scales. A construct validity of the scale was estimated by the calculating the correlation between Terrorism Catastrophizing Scale and the current Fear of Terrorism Scale and found a positive significant relationship (0.564, α= 0.000), a sign of strong validity of the scale. A Reliability of the scale is strong and was estimated by Cronbach‘s alpha and was 0.889. Findings of this study reveals that students concerned 42% that they personally about themselves, 

a friend or relative being the victim of future terrorist attack in Jordan. Also students are worried that there will be another terrorist attack on Jordan soil, region and global in the near future with average of 5.4 (54%), 5.3(535), and 6(60%) respectively. Factor analysis produced three factors explaining 63.9% of the variance, the first factor explained (personal threat) 41.9%% of the variance, the second factor (national threat) explained 14% of the total variance and the third factor (external threats ―regional and global‖) explained 7.8% of the variance. Multiple regression analysis show a significant impact (F=8.741, α=0.00) of demographical variables; political orientation; justice; students satisfaction, Low self-control; catastrophizing, radicalization, bullying, and bullying incidents on fear of terrorism and all explained 57.5% of the variance on the fear of terrorism. Moreover, findings show a significant relationship between fear of terrorism and catastrophizing (.564, α=0.000), low self-control, (.465, α=0.000); personal perceived terrorism threat (.699, α=0.000); personal perceived fear risk( .840, α=0.000); personal perceived risk of terrorism, .809, α=0.000); national terrorism threat (.631, α=0.000), regional terrorism threat (.651, α=0.00), and global terrorism threat (.575, α=0.00). Significant deference between males and females is found in the fear of terrorism (F=9.621, α=0.002).