The results of this preliminary exploration of children's agency suggest that the children's living environment plays a key role in shaping their suffering and reactions to war and ongoing violence. Furthermore, the social nature of the children affected by war-related suffering forces practitioners and policymakers to question the effectiveness of intervention programs that are predominantly focused on symptoms.
Adopting an ecological perspective on children’s functioning and psychological well-being, we investigated the association between agency and life satisfaction, and its bearing on trauma symptoms and negative emotions in a group of Bedouin children living in the occupied Palestinian territories. Specifically, we hypothesized that the more children were agentic, the more they would be satisfied with their lives; and that greater life satisfaction would be associated with better affect balance, and reduced trauma symptoms. A sample of 286 Bedouin children attending primary schools in four different villages in the Jordan Valley completed the
multidimensional students’ life satisfaction scale (MSLSS)
,
positive affect and negative affect scale for children (PANAS-C), Children’s Impact of Event Scale (CRIES-13), and the children’s hope scale (CHS).
Structural equation modeling was performed to evaluate the cumulative network of direct and indirect effects between children’s agency, life satisfaction, and trauma symptoms. The findings confirmed the key role of life satisfaction in mitigating traumatic reactions. Higher levels of life satisfaction were associated with reduced negative emotions and trauma symptoms, suggesting that agency may be viewed as a pre-determining factor with the potential to protect children from trauma symptoms. We discuss the implications for research and clinical practice.
Research has widely documented the effects of war and political violence on the functioning and well-being of adults and children. Yet, within this literature, women’s agency in the face of war-related adversity and political violence remains underexplored. The present study was conducted in the Gaza Strip in the aftermath of the most recent war on Gaza in 2014, with the aim of investigating the consequences of war and political violence for women’s mental health and psychological functioning. Based on interviews with 21 Palestinian women exposed to extreme war-related traumatic events, the article offers an analysis of the risk and protective factors affecting their well-being and enhancing (or diminishing) their agency. Human Security, Family Ties, Psychosocial Resources, Individual Resources, and Motherhood emerged from the women’s narratives as key factors contributing to the maintenance of positive psychological functioning and the ability to adjust to traumatic war events in the aftermath of acute armed conflict. These exploratory findings suggest that Palestinian women display a high level of functioning and resources for adjustment that is preserved after periods of devastating armed conflict. The study draws attention to a set of protective factors for the well-being of women and their families when living with chronic political violence.
Responding to the need for more information concerning the mental health and psychological well-being of women living amid political oppression and war, this study aimed to explore specific factors that contribute to women’s individual and collective perceptions about war and the associated traumatic life events that occurred during their lives. Moving from a socioecological and culture-informed perspective, we used narrative timelines elicited from 21 Palestinian women in Gaza, both individually and collectively, as a tool for both data collection and intervention. A deductive, top-down, thematic content analysis procedure was used to categorize data. The main events outlined by the women in their historical accounts, both individual and collective, were linked to political events in and surrounding Palestine. The life events’ calendars reflect a constant attempt in balancing and compensating traumatic events with sources of well-being related to social support and family. Individual and collective narrative activities contributed to generate a significant reframing in the attribution of meaning and emotional perceptions of the participants. Women articulated how they build resilience through transgenerational and daily practices of resistance that encompass indigenous strategies of coping and skills of survival.
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