War Trauma, Anxiety, and Resilience among University Students in the Gaza Strip

Abstract

The aims of this study were to identify the types of the traumatic experiences, to find the type of resilience factors, anxiety trait and state occurrence, and to determine the relationship between exposure to the traumatic experiences, resilience and trait and state among university students. It is a descriptive analytical study; the sample consisted of randomly selected 399 university students enrolled in the main four universities in Gaza Strip (Al-Aqsa, Al-Azhar, Al-Quds Open and Islamic University) at the second semester of the academic year 2012-2013. We used five questionnaires to collect the data; a predesigned Sociodemographic sheet, Gaza Traumatic Events Checklist, the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, and Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale.This study showed that the most commonly reported traumatic events were watching mutilated bodies on TV (92.7%), witnessing the shelling and destruction of another's home (47.37%), witnessing firing by tanks and heavy artillery at neighbors' homes (47.12%), and being forced to move from home to a safer place during the war (42.86%). Mean total traumatic events was 4.72. Anxiety state mean was 46.62 and anxiety trait mean was 36.22. The most common resilience concepts (most of the time/all the time) were: God can help (91.7%), things happen for a reason (90.3%), and I am proud of my achievements (85.2%). Male students had significantly more total resilience, more personal competence and more trust in one's instincts than female students. The results showed that there was a significant correlation between total traumatic events and anxiety state and trait. The results showed that there was no significant correlation between total traumatic events and total resilience, but there was a positive significant correlation between total traumatic events and trust in one's instincts, tolerance of negative affect and strengthening effects. On the other hand, there was a significant correlation between total traumatic events and spiritual domain. There was a significant correlation between anxiety state and total resilience and its subscales except in spiritual dimension.Our conclusion was exposure to previous traumatic events due to Gaza war had long-term negative effects on Palestinian university students which increased their mental health problems. We recommend that students affair should show brief students the nature of the course, the institutional ethos, the subjects that they will be taught and aspects relating to assignments, examinations, evaluation and other academic requirements, and should also provide therapeutic interventions for university students who suffer from anxiety.

Future Anxiety Among Young People Affected by War and Armed Conflict: Indicators for Social Work Practice

“…Studies conducted in this context indicate the prevalence of psychological disorders such as anxiety among females more than males due to living in an environment of war and conflict ( Murthy & Lakshminarayana, 2006 ). These results are consistent with the results of Thabet and Sultan (2016) study conducted on a sample of university youth victims of war and conflict, which indicates that there is a relationship between anxiety and sex of war-affected young and that exposure to previous traumatic events due to armed conflict has long-term negative effects on university students that differ according to their gender this may increase their mental health problems. Also this result is consistent with a study conducted on the relationship between COVID-19 and future anxiety.…”

Life balance and traumatic txperiences in undergraduate students living near conflict zones

“…The results indicated that both men (40%) and women (40%) had high scores of PCL (a score more than 48) which was higher than PTSD symptoms rates among potentially traumatic events exposed undergraduate students in other studies (Anders et al 2012;Frazier et al 2009;Watson and Haynes 2007). In addition, when compared to the similar studies conducted on individuals and students who live in or near conflict zones (Fontana et al 1992;Khan et al 2016;Marthoenis et al 2018;Şar 2017;Thabet and Abu Sultan 2016;Yasan et al 2008), the symptomology rates were higher in the current study. There are some possible reasons of the high rate of prevalence.…”