Traumatic Events Exposure and Psychological Trauma in Children Victims of War in the Gaza Strip

Abstract

The present article studies war-related trauma and its effects on children living in the Gaza Strip, 6 months after the attack launched by the Israeli army on July 8, 2014, which lasted for 51 days. The objective was twofold: (a) to identify the prevalence of exposure to traumatic events and (b) to examine the symptoms of traumatic stress in children as described by their parents or tutors using the Harvard Trauma Questionnaire (HTQ). Data from 1,850 male and female children aged between 6 and 15 years living in the Gaza Strip were collected throughout the months of February and April 2015, that is 6 months after the attack. Results showed that the majority of the children were exposed to bombardments and residential area destruction (83.51%), were confined at home unable to go outside (72.92%), were witness to the profanation of mosques (70.38%), were exposed to combat situations (66.65%), and saw corpses (59.95%). A sample of 275 males (28.3%) and 232 females (26.5%) showed diagnoses of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Gender and age were independent of PTSD. The presence of this pathology was positively related to the number of trauma events experienced. The type of traumatic experience was hardly related to age and gender. A greater protection on behalf of the families against exposure to traumatic events could explain these differences.

Violence and torture against migrants and refugees attempting to reach the European Union through Western Balkans

“…Research e reveals the frequent violence and torture that migrants/refugees suffer by police and border agents in their attempt to reach the European Union (Arsenijevic et al, 2017;Crepet et al, 2017;Farhat et al, 2018;Koning, 2019). Psychologically, exposure to these violent episodes during transit serves to add to previous traumatic events and increases the risk of mental health issues for migrants and refugees (Dimitry, 2012;Manzanero et al, 2017).…”

The nature of posttraumatic nightmares and school functioning in war-affected youth

“…As an example of the population's potential exposure to traumatic events, the 2014 war lasted 54 days and carried a reported death toll of 2,251, including 299 women and 551 children; 11,231 individuals were wounded, including 3,540 women and 3,436 children; 18,000 housing units were destroyed; and about 500,000 people were displaced [5]. Studies have documented that Gazan children have experienced displacement and/or witnessed death, shelling, and combat situations [6]. Studies have further indicated that 64 to 67% of children in Gaza demonstrate clinical levels of posttraumatic stress symptoms [7,8].…”

Dissociative Amnesia beyond the Evidence about the Functioning of Memory

“…The main cause is the sample analyzed. Sometimes they are clinical samples, therefore they are already skewed from the start, as they do not contemplate in the study the non-clinical population that would be the majority among adult (Steel et al, 2009) and children (Dimitry, 2012;Manzanero et al, 2017) victims. On the other hand, the memories studied are difficult to contrast from the point of view of their reality, for example, in child sexual abuse.…”