Predictors of psychological distress and positive resources among Palestinian adolescents : trauma, child, and mothering characteristics
The aim was to examine how traumatic and stressful events, responses to violence, child characteristics, and mothering quality, as measured in middle childhood predict psychological distress and positive resources in adolescence.
Author: Qouta, Samir | Punamäki, Raija-Leena | Montgomery, Edith | Sarraj, Eyad El
RCT Author: Edith Montgomery
Source: Child abuse and neglect ; vol. 31, no.
7
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Method: The participants were 65 Palestinian
adolescents (17 ± .85 years; 52% girls), who had been studied
during the First Intifada (T1), during the Palestinian Authority
rule (T2) and before the Second Al Aqsa Intifada (T3) in Gaza.
Psychological distress was indicated by PTSD, and
depressive symptoms and positive resources by resilient attitudes
and satisfaction with quality of life, all
measured at T3. The predictors that were
measured at T1 were exposure to military violence, active coping
with violence and children's intelligence, cognitive capacity, and
neuroticism. Mothering quality and stressful life-events were
measured at T2, the former reported by both the mother and the
child, and the latter by the mother.
Results: Adolescents' PTSD symptoms were most likely
if they had been exposed to high levels of traumatic
and stressful experiences and had poor cognitive capacity and high
neuroticism in middle childhood. Only high levels of
childhood military violence and stressful life-events predicted
high depressive symptoms and low satisfaction with quality
of life in adolescence.
Conclusions: Military violence in childhood
forms risks for both increased psychological distress
and decreased positive resources. However, child characteristics
such as cognitive capacity and personality are important
determinants of
psychological vulnerability in military
trauma