Disparity in Political Participation on Social Media Public Sphere among Male and Female Students

Social media has become a key term in new participatory political discourse. Previous studies argued that youth is least interested in democracies and politics; hence, this study aims to explore the role of social media in increasing political participation among male and female university students. Data was collected from a sample of 340 students, chosen from equal gender proportion of five universities with purposive sampling technique to conduct quantitative survey research. The findings of study revealed a positive relationship between political participation and social media usage of students. It also confirms that majority respondents were using social media for political information but the trend is more popular among the male students as compared to females. Male participants were more involved in discussing politics and posting political content on social media, while females were more active in actionable politics like casting vote. The study concludes that social media is playing a significant role in enhancing political participation among university students and predicts a better future of democracies in social media world as new technology provides the language that young voters understand. It also realized that measures are required to attract female students towards participatory politics in Pakistan. ______

Level of Stress, Anxiety and Depression in Police Officers of Nwfp, Pakistan

The present study was carried out to investigate the levels of stress, anxiety, and depression among the police officers of the North West Frontier Province of Pakistan and to further differentiate these levels on the basis of the prominently perceived psychosocial factors i.e. sex, marital status, length of service, official ranks, location of the duty stations, and nature of the duty stations. The inquiry included 315 police officers from different districts of the understudied province. Depression Anxiety and Stress Scale (Lovibond & Lovibond, 1995) was administered accompanied by Social Readjustment Rating Scale (Holmes & Rahe 1967). It was hypothesized that the police officers would project severe levels of depression, anxiety, and stress. Female officers, married officers, officers with more years of service, officers with low official ranks, officers working in urban areas, and officers working in sensitive police stations were predicted to have higher levels of depression, anxiety and stress as compared to male officers, unmarried officers, officers with less years of service, officers with high official ranks, officers working in rural areas, and officers working in neutral police stations respectively. The results supported the hypotheses on highly significant differences.