The Role of Self-control and Resilience in Reducing Violent Extremist Attitudes Among Pakistani Young Adults.

Evidence from previous research indicates that lack of self-control and resilience play a significant role in extremist attitudes and unethical conduct. However, little is known about the protective role of self-control and resilience in relation to violent extremist attitudes. This study investigated whether self-control and resilience have an impact on violent extremist attitudes. This study utilized purposive convenient sampling. The sample consisted of N = 562 (men; n = 273; women; n = 289) with age range between 16 and 25 years (M = 19.27; SD = 2.50). The sample of young adults was collected from seminaries [madaaris], college, and university students from different provinces of Pakistan. The measures used in this study included the Urdu versions of Connor and Davidson Resilience scale, Violent Extremism Scale, and Brief Self-Control Scale. Findings indicated that self-control significantly negatively predicted violent extremist attitudes, while resilience significantly moderated the association among self-control and violent extremist attitudes. Efforts to detect and intervene in such context should be made for the improvement of the emotion-regulation strategies of young adults which in turn will reduce violent extremist attitudes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]