Several culturally specific practical considerations should inform social work interventions with ethnic Arab peoples in Arab countries or in Western nations. These include taking into account gender relations, individuals' places in their families and communities, patterns of mental health services use, and, for practice in Western nations, the client's level of acculturation. Such aspects provide the basis for specific guidelines in working with ethnic Arab mental health clients. These include an emphasis on short-term, directive treatment; communication patterns that are passive and informal; patients' understanding of external loci of control and their use of ethnospecific idioms of distress; and, where appropriate, the integration of modern and traditional healing systems.

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The discussion considers implications for professional service delivery and programme development. Future research could extrapolate findings to other Arab countries and to Arab peoples living in the non-Arab world.

This study is the first to use identical data collection processes and instruments in Egypt, Kuwait, Palestine, and Israeli Arab communities regarding help-seeking behaviors and attitudes towards perceived cultural beliefs about mental health problems. Data is based on a survey sample of 716, undergraduate students in the 4 countries, 61% female and 39% male. Results indicate that respondents within the various countries, based on nationality, gender and level of education, vary in terms of recognition of personal need, beliefs about mental health problems (i.e. stigmatization), and the use of traditional healing methods versus modern approaches to psychiatric therapy. The conclusion discusses differences between our respondents' expectations and prevailing mental health service provision and delivery.

This research is among the first to analyze social work practitioners' workplace subjective well-being (SWB), the social scientific concept of happiness. From an initial survey of 646 social workers, 13 respondents with the highest SWB scores were interviewed: a cohort that can teach us much about creating and sustaining SWB.Findings: The following reports on one aspect of those qualitative findings: the work related factors that impact overall SWB. Researchers found that the respondents' overall SWB was impacted by characteristics of their work environment (i.e. physical, cultural, and systemic), interrelationships at work (i.e. with clients, colleagues, and supervisors), and specific aspects of the job (i.e. factors associated with both workload and type of work).Applications: The findings are discussed in relation to social work administration, and future research. There are implications for direct social work practitioners, managers, and educators, and in particular with regard to workplace environments that support social worker SWB.

The article calls on public policy and social service personnel to increase public awareness of the significance of polygamous family structures for women's wellbeing.

The authors considered the mental health consequences of polygamy in a sample of 101 Arab Muslim adolescents (19 from polygamous and 82 from monogamous families) at Juarish (Ramla), Israel. The respondents completed the Self-Esteem Scale (SE; M. Rosenberg, 1979), the Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI; L. Derogatis & N. Melsavados, 1983; L. Derogatis & P. Spencer, 1982), and the McMaster Family Assessment Device (FAD; N. B. Epstein, M. N. Baldwin, & D. S. Bishop, 1983). The respondents from polygamous families had lower SE scores, statistically significant higher scores in 2 BSI dimensions, higher scores in all other BSI dimensions, and higher levels of self-reported family dysfunction. The respondents from polygamous families reported lower levels of socioeconomic status, academic achievement, and parental academic attainment. Those variables may have had a more direct impact on mental health than did parental marital status. The data also indicated that perceived family functioning was the best predictor of mental health.

BackgroundThere has been no reported research comparing Jewish Israeli and Palestinian adolescents regarding the effect of ongoing political violence on adolescent psychosocial, family, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and aggression problems.AimsTo compare Israeli and Palestinian responses regarding the relationship between exposure to traumatic events and psychosocial, behavioural, emotional and family problems.MethodA cluster sample of youths aged 14–18 years, including 442 Jewish Israeli adolescents in Ariel, Haifa and Tel-Aviv, and 450 Palestinian adolescents in Gaza cities, villages and refugee camps were surveyed in 2006 using our Traumatic Events Questionnaire (TEV), the Brief Symptoms Inventory (BSI), the PTSD Symptom Scale – Interview (PSS–I), the Index of Peer Relations scale (IPR), Buss–Perry Aggression Questionnaire (BPAQ) and the MacMaster Family Assessment Device (FAD).ResultsPalestinian respondents had higher scores in the TEV, BSI, PSS–I and BPAQ questionnaires, and greater problems in functioning as revealed in the IPR and FAD. The social functioning of the adolescents with their peers predicted mental health symptoms and PTSD symptoms. Lower socioeconomic status predicted mental health symptoms, PTSD, pathology of participants' family functioning and the social functioning of the adolescents with their peers. Parents' education positively effected the FAD score and the avoidance item on the PSS–I, and religiosity improved the score on the FAD. Females reported more symptoms on the BSI and PSS–I than males, and males more symptoms on the FAD and IPR than females.ConclusionsBoth respondent groups had significant emotional and behavioural problems. Individual and community treatment, and community and social development, are likely to be useful for both populations, particularly Palestinians.