Predicting college student attitudes toward the Persian Gulf War: The role of gender and television exposure.

Abstract

This study examined college student attitudes and emotional reactions to the Persian Gulf War as a function of the student's gender and the amount of exposure to television coverage of the conflict. Respondents were 721 undergraduate students attending either a large residential campus or a smaller commuter campus of a Midwestern university. All analyses controlled for the effect of political conservatism. Results indicated that male students were more likely than female students to believe that war casualties were necessary and to think military censorship was justified. Women reported feeling less energized and more anxious and depressed about the war than men. Greater television exposure was related to more support of the Gulf War among students on the residential campus, but not for those on the commuter campus. Last, a significant relation between television exposure and attitudes toward the war among women on the residential campus indicated that the more these women watched television coverage of t...