Maternal Monitoring, Adolescent Disclosure, and Adolescent Adjustment Among Palestinian Refugee Youth in Jordan

Abstract

The role of parenting (adolescent-perceived maternal solicitation of information and control), and child-driven processes (adolescent disclosure and secrecy) in parental knowledge of adolescents' activities, norm-breaking, and anxiety were examined among 498 poor Palestinian youth (M = 15 years) living in refugee camps in Jordan. With family relationships and demographic background controlled, greater adolescent disclosure and less secrecy about activities, but also more maternal control and solicitation, were associated with greater maternal knowledge. Greater dispositional secrecy was associated with greater norm-breaking and generalized anxiety, but parental control and parental solicitation were not. In addition, both gender and maternal control moderated the effects of disclosure on norm-breaking. Differences between these findings and research with Western samples are discussed.

Iraqi, Syrian, and Palestinian Refugee Adolescents' Beliefs About Parental Authority Legitimacy and Its Correlates

“…These findings may be due to the rigid and relatively disengaged parental interactions found among Palestinian parents in Jordanian refugee camps (Al-Simadi & Atoum, 2000) and thus reflect a broad disaffection with parental authority. This interpretation accords well with the higher levels of problem behavior (shown here in Table 1) among Palestinians as compared to Iraqi and Syrian youth, as well as in other Palestinian refugee samples living in Jordan (Ahmad, Smetana, & Klimstra, 2015). Palestinian adolescents also rated personal issues as lower in authority legitimacy (e.g., more under their personal control) than did Iraqis or Syrians.…”

Heterogeneity in Perceptions of Parenting Among Arab Refugee Adolescents in Jordan

“…Arab parents are described as patriarchal and very authoritarian in their family decision making (Al‐Simadi & Atoum, ; Dwairy et al., ). Obedience to authority, loyalty, and respect for the family are strongly emphasized (Ahmad, Smetana, & Klimstra, ; Dahir, ; Sharifzadeh, ). These values stem from Islamic principles (Oweis, Gharaibeh, Maaitah, Gharaibeh, & Obeisat, ), are deeply rooted in Arab culture and are relatively consistent across Middle Eastern countries and regions (Abudabbeh, ; Dwairy et al., ).…”

Patterns of Adolescents’ Coping with Bullying and Peer Victimization: the Link to Psychosocial Maladjustment and the Role of School Bonding

“…Studies of coping patterns outside the field of school bullying are grounded in a much different social and familial context than coping with peer victimization, the focus of the present study, in that peer victimization happens on a more regular basis whenever a victim is at school (Ma et al 2018). Besides, given that non-Western societies hold different social, familial, and peer norms and value systems (Ahmad et al 2014;Chao 1995;Singelis 1994), little is known about how this finding can be generalized to a culture outside of North America and Europe; therefore, considering culturally diverse adolescent populations is much warranted.…”