Predictors and effectiveness of coping with political violence among Palestinian children

Abstract

Relationships between exposure to political hardships, social-economic status and mother''s psychological responses, and children''s coping modes, were analysed among 66 Palestinian boys and girls aged 8-14 who lived in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, Israel. The effectiveness of children''s coping modes in protecting their mental health from the negative impact of political hardships was also analysed. The coping modes were assessed on the intentional (passive-active), cognitive (defensive-purposive), and emotional (helpless-courageous) levels. The results showed that the more children were exposed to political hardships, the more they employed active and courageous coping modes. Furthermore, the more mothers showed psychological symptoms the more their children used active coping modes. The more political activity the mothers used as a coping mode, the more their children used purposive coping. Exposure to political hardships increased children''s psychological symptoms, and none of the children''s psychological coping modes were effective in mitigating this relationship.