Resiliency factors predicting psychological adjustment after political violence among Palestinian children

TLDR

The study measured cognitive capacity, perceived parenting, traumatic events, and activity during the 1993 Intifada and later assessed their impact on PTSD, emotional disorders, school performance, and neuroticism in 86 Palestinian children. Results showed that high exposure to traumatic events and passive responses predicted elevated PTSD, discrepant perceived parenting (loving mother, less caring father) also increased PTSD, high intellectual but low creative performance correlated with emotional disorders, while cognitive capacity and activity buffered adjustment when children felt loved and nonrejected, and neuroticism declined over three years, especially among those with many traumatic events.

Abstract

The effects of cognitive capacity, perceived parenting, traumatic events, and activity, which were ” rst measured in the midst of the political violence of the Intifada in 1993, were examined on post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), emotional disorders, school performance, and neuroticism three years later in more peaceful conditions among 86 Palestinian children of 14.04 ± 0.79 years of age. The results showed, ” rst, that PTSD was high among the children who had been exposed to a high level of traumatic events and had responded passively (not actively) to Intifada violence. Discrepant perceived parenting was also decisive for adjustment: Children who perceived their mothers as highly loving and caring but their fathers as not so showed a high level of PTSD. High intellectual but low creative performance was also characteristic of the children suffering from emotional disorders. Second, the hypothesis that cognitive capacity and activity serve a resiliency function if children feel loved and nonrejected at home was confirmed. Third, neuroticism decreased significantly over the three years, especially among the children who had been exposed to a high number of traumatic events.