Research Data_2022.11.25

A multiple linear regression analysis was used to investigate the relationship between the criterion, terrorist incidents, and two predictors: political stability and economic growth. Additionally, one-way Analysis of Variance was used to determine whether a difference existed in terrorist acts incidence between the DRC and the neighboring countries. The first discovery indicated that political stability significantly predicted terrorist incidents in the DRC.

The second discovery suggested that economic growth did not significantly predict terrorist acts in the DRC. The results revealed no significant difference between the DRC and some neighboring countries in terms of terrorist acts incidence. Data source: All secondary data on the DRC and its neighboring countries were collected or compiled by the World Bank (databank.worldbank.org/) and the the National Consortium for the Study of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism (START) (www.start.umd.edu/gtd), headquartered at the University of Maryland.

START “is a university-based research and education center comprised of an international network of scholars committed to the scientific study of the causes and human consequences of terrorism in the United States and around the world” (START, 2022). The Global Terrorism Database (GTD) contains data on over 140,000 terrorist incidents across the globe (START, 2022). The data used in this study are available on these two organizations’ websites.

The original files collected from the two websites contained 162 cases. The publication of WGI started in 1996. WGI were first published once every two years.

From 2002, WGI have been published yearly. WGI about the years 1997, 1999, and 2001 were thus missing in the files obtained from the website. As multiple linear analysis used in the study required observed response, terrorist incidents, and contemporaneous values of the predictors, I resolved to use valid cases.

I therefore removed cases that had missing data from the file. Hence, valid cases I used in this study spanned 17 years, for the period starting in 2002 through 2019. Longitudinal data file used in the study contained 153 discrete cases.