GENERALIZED ANXIETY DISORDER AND ITS ASSOCIATED FACTORS AMONG FEMALE STUDENTS

Background and Aim: To determine the Generalized Anxiety Disorder and its association with factors like hormonal changes, chronic illness among female students of university. Methodology: Perceptions and preferences of Female Students were determined in well-organized Institute (Superior University) with ages between 16-28 years old of all disciplines. Electronic self-administrated questionnaires consisting of two parts; demographics factors (Age, Gender, Designation, education Discipline, socioeconomic status and medical history) and Generalized Anxiety Disorder GAD-7, were then filled by the participated female students with sample size of 231. Then the perceptions and preferences were evaluated using a pre validated questionnaire (GAD-7) from previous research article. Results: A total of 231 responses were returned. All respondents were females. About (62.7%) of total respondents reported feeling nervous, anxious, or on edge to some degree; 10% of respondents said that they experience this feeling nearly every day. A significant proportion of respondents reported mild to moderate anxiety levels. The mean score of anxiety scale was 3.87±3.32 with minimum and maximum score of 0 and 19. The study findings give us a better considerate that Traumatic disorders (39.4 %), hormone issues (45.2%), were the main causes of anxiety. 39.8% indicated that they had a family history of anxiety. Overall, moderate to high levels of anxiety among the participants were observed. Conclusion: These results illustrate the need to devise treatment strategies to alleviate symptoms of generalized anxiety and reduce the prevalence of Generalized Anxiety Disorder among students. It is suggested that to decrease the level of anxiety among university students, regular counseling sessions should be implemented.

Subscription or Subversion: Gender Representation in Pakistani Television Commercials

Title: Subscription or Subversion: Gender Representation in Pakistani TV Commercials. The current interdisciplinary research falls into the domains of semiotics, linguistics and cultural studies. Television commercials, having the power to (re)frame the ideology of larger audience through its visual/linguistic content and agency to pave the way to social change have become one of the most viable social institutions of disseminating information to a wider audience. In any of its forms, media construct the image of men and women differently associating with them specific traits regarding their activities, roles and position. The commercials are considered persuasive and efficient modes of representation, having strong impact on the social perception of the viewers. The current study aims to investigate the representation of gender-binary relations in the Pakistani television commercials. The study also imbues the broader socio-cultural factors which help to identify the representational and positional value of men and women. The study analyzes whether gender representation in the Pakistani television commercials subscribes to or subverts the traditional gender narratives. The researcher finds a gap in the area of research, as most of the studies have been produced on gender equality and representation in the Euro-American sphere and a few in Pakistani context, but there is a wide scope of research on gender representation with semiotic perspective. The current study draws its theoretical foundation on the theory of semiotics propounded by Dyer (1982) in her book Advertising as Communication. Semiotics is conceived as an appropriate tool for the critical inquiry of the television commercials because of its widely ranging acceptability and reliability in the meaning making process as suggested by Williamson (1978), Dyer (1982) and Jhally (1990). The data for the current study comprises television commercials broadcast on famous Pakistani television channels. The sampling technique is based on non-probability purposive sampling with the rationale of choosing this technique to include only those commercials which largely reflect gender representation. The study finds that the commercials present layers of meanings via semiotic modes at symbolic level where men and women are displayed in stereotypical manner, subscribing to patriarchal structures. The study recommends the change in the content of the televised material and also highlights the unexplored avenues which can be brought under considerations by the future researchers.