March of the Living, a Holocaust Educational Tour: An Assessment of Anxiety and Depression

Abstract

March of the Living (MOTL) is a 2-week international educational tour for high school seniors to learn about the Holocaust by visiting concentration/deaths camps and other Jewish historical sites in Poland, culminating in a week-long excursion in Israel. Although the trip is primarily educational, there is recent research evidence to suggest that attendees may suffer from a variety of mental health sequelae. To determine symptoms of anxiety and depression, 196 Los Angeles delegation participants voluntarily completed the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, composed of a trait anxiety scale (i.e., STAI-T) and a state anxiety scale (i.e., STAI-S), and the Center for Epidemiologic Studies Depression Scale (CES-D). Pre-MOTL, students completed an initial background questionnaire along with the STAI-T, STAI-S, and the CES-D. At end-Poland and end-Israel, the STAI-S and CES-D were administered again. Results demonstrated that depression scores increased during end-Poland and returned to baseline; however, anxiety scores mildly increased end-Poland and rose slightly more and persisted through end-Israel.

Visiting Auschwitz: Evidence of secondary traumatization among high school students.

“…Secondary trauma after visiting the Auschwitz Museum and Memorial was highly prevalent among a vulnerable group: those students with the highest empathic concern, who easily included the victims into the self. This problem reflects the question of emotional overgeneralization observed among Israeli students visiting Nazi death camps in Poland (Lazar, Chaitin, Gross, & Bar-on, 2004) and the increased levels of anxiety found among Jewish participants in the March of the Living event at Auschwitz (Nager, Pham, Grajower, & Gold, 2016). Results of the studies of Jewish visitors to Auschwitz suggest that such visits lead to increased spirituality, which limits somatizations and other negative outcomes from visiting traumatic places (Nager et al, 2011).…”

A cross-sectional study of anxiety and depression caseness in female competitive figure skaters in Sweden

“…In STAI-S, scores of 1–2 may indicate ‘no anxiety’, while scores of 3–4 may indicate ‘anxiety’. An STAI-S-cut-off score of >40 has been used in previous studies 22 23. This study used a corresponding cut-off score of >12 for short-STAI.…”

“…An STAI-S-cut-off score of >40 has been used in previous studies. 22 23 This study used a corresponding cut-off score of >12 for short-STAI. By scoring >12, the responding athlete, on average, was less than moderately calm, relaxed and content and more than somewhat tense, upset and worried.…”