scholarly journals Political violence, psychological distress, and perceived health: A longitudinal investigation in the Palestinian authority.

2012 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 9-21 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stevan E. Hobfoll ◽  
Brian J. Hall ◽  
Daphna Canetti
Keyword(s):  
Psychological Distress ◽  
Political Violence ◽  
Perceived Health ◽  
Palestinian Authority ◽  
Longitudinal Investigation

Child development and family mental health in war and military violence: The Palestinian experience

2008 ◽  
Vol 32 (4) ◽  
pp. 310-321 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samir Qouta ◽  
Raija-Leena Punamäki ◽  
Eyad El Sarraj
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Psychological Distress ◽  
Child Development ◽  
Peer Relations ◽  
Cognitive Capacity ◽  
Palestinian Authority ◽  
Related Factors ◽  
Developmental Issues ◽  
Governmental Organization ◽  
Military Violence

The article reviews developmental research among Palestinians living in Gaza. The aims are, first, to analyze how exposure to traumatic events associates with children's mental health and their cognitive, emotional and social development. Second, we aimed to model familial and symbolic processes that can either harm or protect the mental health of children. Third, we wanted to learn who the resilient children are in conditions of war and military violence. The reviewed research has been conducted in the context of a Palestinian non-governmental organization, the Gaza Community Mental Health Programme, during the political upheavals involving hopes for peace and intensive war and violence: the First Intifada (1987—1993), the Palestinian Authority rule (1994— ) and the Second Al Aqsa Intifada (2001— ). The results show that life threat, violence and losses form a risk for increased psychological distress. There are, however, a myriad of child, family and society related factors and psycho-socio-physiological processes that protect child development and mental health. They include, e.g. loving and wisely guiding parenting, children's flexible and high cognitive capacity, flexible and multiple coping strategies and narrative and symbolic nocturnal dreaming, as well as social support and good peer relations. Different models explain psychological distress and positive resources, including child resilience. Exposure to trauma is crucial in predicting distress, while familial and developmental issues are important in building resilience. Children's conscious and unconscious cognitive-emotional processes are crucial for underlying mental health and knowledge about them is important in tailoring evidence-based preventive interventions among war victims.

scholarly journals Should Psychological Distress Screening in the Community Account for Self-Perceived Health Status?

2009 ◽  
Vol 54 (8) ◽  
pp. 526-533 ◽  
Author(s):  
Norbert Schmitz ◽  
Alain Lesage ◽  
JianLi Wang
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Psychological Distress ◽  
Health Status ◽  
Sensitivity And Specificity ◽  
Community Sample ◽  
Strong Association ◽  
Perceived Health ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Perceived Health Status ◽  
Screening Performance

Objective: Psychological distress questionnaires are often used as screening instruments for mental disorders in clinical and epidemiologic settings. Poor physical health may affect the screening properties of a questionnaire. We evaluate the effect of self-perceived health status on the screening performance of the Kessler K10 and K6 scales in a community sample. Methods: We used data from the Canadian Community Health Survey: Mental Health and Well-Being (CCHS 1.2). Psychological distress was measured by the 6–item (K6) and the 10–item (K10) Kessler instrument. Depression and anxiety disorders were assessed using the World Mental Health Composite International Diagnostic Interview (1–month estimates). Optimal cut-off points regarding health status were determined by finding the K6 and K10 values that allowed for the best balance between sensitivity and specificity. Stratum-specific likelihood ratios (SSLRs) were computed to define strata with discriminating power. Results: There was a strong association between the screening performance of the K6 and K10 scales and self-perceived health status: for the K10 scale, a cut-off point of 5/6 yielded the best balance between sensitivity and specificity for subjects with excellent or very good health status, while a cut-off point of 14/15 yielded the best balance between sensitivity and specificity for subjects with poor health status. Conclusions: The combination of the K6 and K10 scales, with a self-rated health status item, may improve screening properties of the 2 scales.

Exposure to Violence, Ethos of Conflict, and Support for Compromise

2016 ◽  
Vol 61 (1) ◽  
pp. 84-113 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daphna Canetti ◽  
Julia Elad-Strenger ◽  
Iris Lavi ◽  
Dana Guy ◽  
Daniel Bar-Tal
Keyword(s):  
Psychological Distress ◽  
Political Violence ◽  
Exposure To Violence ◽  
Political Conflict ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Peaceful Settlement ◽  
Political Outcomes ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
East Jerusalem

Does ongoing exposure to political violence prompt subject groups to support or oppose compromise in situations of intractable conflict? If so, what is the mechanism underlying these processes? Political scholarship neither offers conclusive arguments nor sufficiently addresses individual-level forms of exposure to violence in the context of political conflict, particularly the factors mediating political outcomes. We address this by looking at the impact of exposure to political violence, psychological distress, perceived threat, and ethos of conflict on support for political compromise. A mediated model is hypothesized whereby exposure to political violence provokes support for the ethos of conflict and hinders support for compromise through perceived psychological distress and perceived national threat. We examined representative samples of two parties to the same conflict: Israelis ( N = 781) and Palestinians from Gaza, East Jerusalem, and the West Bank ( N = 1,196). The study’s main conclusion is that ethos of conflict serves as a mediating variable in the relationship between exposure to violence and attitudes toward peaceful settlement of the conflict.

Exposure to Political Violence and Political Extremism

2013 ◽  
Vol 18 (4) ◽  
pp. 263-272 ◽  
Author(s):  
Daphna Canetti ◽  
Brian J. Hall ◽  
Carmit Rapaport ◽  
Carly Wayne
Keyword(s):  
Psychological Distress ◽  
Political Violence ◽  
Prolonged Exposure ◽  
Political Attitudes ◽  
Causal Chain ◽  
Policy Implications ◽  
Political Extremism ◽  
Conflict Zones ◽  
Political Consequences ◽  
And Behavior

Exposure to political violence can lead to various political and psychological outcomes. Using the protracted Israeli-Palestinian conflict as a natural laboratory, we explore the way in which exposure to conflict violence leads to changes in citizens’ political attitudes and behavior, offering a model for a stress-based process of political extremism. This model encapsulates three basic components in a causal chain leading to political extremism: exposure to political violence, psychological distress, and enhanced perceptions of threat. We find that prolonged exposure to political violence increases psychological distress, which in turn evokes stronger perceptions of threat that foment political attitudes eschewing compromise and favoring militarism. This causal chain fuels a destructive cycle of violence that is hard to break. Understanding these psychological and political consequences of exposure to political violence can help to shed light on the barriers that too often stymie peacemaking efforts and contribute to the deterioration of intractable conflicts around the globe. Thus, this review offers insights applicable to conflict zones around the world and suggests policy implications for therapeutic intervention and potential pathways to conflict resolution.

Explaining public support for violence against politicians during conflict: Evidence from a panel study in Israel

2020 ◽  
pp. 002234332090535
Author(s):  
Julia Elad-Strenger ◽  
Brian J Hall ◽  
Stevan E Hobfoll ◽  
Daphna Canetti
Keyword(s):  
Psychological Distress ◽  
Political Violence ◽  
Panel Study ◽  
Public Support ◽  
Political Stability ◽  
Political Orientation ◽  
Interactive Effects ◽  
Perceived Threat ◽  
Political Actors ◽  
Protective Strategy

What drives citizens’ support for violence against domestic political actors? Despite its potentially devastating consequences, there is surprisingly little research on the antecedents of this unique form of political violence. Building upon recent insights on the psychological implications of exposure to conflict on support for political violence, we examined the motivations underlying public support for violence against politicians in the context of protracted conflict. Using a two-wave panel design among Jewish-Israelis, we examined the interactive effects of conflict-induced perceived threat, psychological distress, and political orientation on support for violence against politicians. Consistent with previous findings on the psychological implications of conflict, our findings suggest that conflict-induced threat perceptions play an important role in predicting support for violence against politicians. Nevertheless, our findings point to important boundary conditions to these effects: the strength of the relationship between perceived threat and attitudes towards political violence is qualified by the level of chronic conflict-related psychological distress, and the direction of the effects of perceived threat is qualified by individuals’ self-placement on the left-right continuum. More specifically, we found that perceived threat increased rightists’ support and decreases leftists’ support for violence against politicians, only under high, but not low, conflict-related psychological distress. The main conclusion of this study is that support for violence against politicians can be seen as an ideology-driven protective strategy against the negative psychological implications of exposure to violent conflict. By pointing to the importance of understanding the interactive role of psychological and political factors in determining public support for such acts, our findings therefore contribute to the understanding of a relatively understudied phenomenon with potentially catastrophic effects on political stability.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document