Michelle Slone

Responses to Media Coverage of Terrorism

Differential anxiety responses to television coverage of national threat situations and terrorism in Israel were examined. A total of 237 participants were evenly divided into two groups, each exposed to an experimental or control condition. The experimental condition involved exposure to television news clips of terrorism and threats to national security. The control condition involved equivalent-length exposure to news clips unrelated to national danger situations. Results supported the anxiety-inducing effect of the experimental condition and indicated differential demographic and dispositional responses to the footage according to gender, religiousness, and level of dogmatism. These results support the powerful effect of the mass media and advocate further exploration of links between media broadcasting of political violence and psychological processes.

Teacher-delivered resilience-focused intervention in schools with traumatized children following the second Lebanon war†

The 2006 Lebanon War exposed children in the north of Israel to daily rocket attacks. To cope with the massive psychological needs, a teacher-delivered protocol focusing on enhancing personal resilience was implemented. Children were assessed for risk factors, symptoms, and adaptation before the 16-week program (Time 1; n = 983) and after its completion (Time 2; n = 563). At a 3-month follow-up (Time 3; n = 754) children were assessed together with a waiting-list comparison group (n = 1,152). Participating children showed a significant symptom decrease at Time 2 and significantly fewer symptoms than the control group at Time 3. Six or more risk factors were associated with greater symptoms and parental concern about the childs adaptive functioning. Teachers are valuable cost-effective providers for clinically informed interventions after mass trauma and disaster.

Adverse political events and psychological adjustment: two cross-cultural studies.

OBJECTIVE The life events model was extended to the political arena to enable the comparison of childrens adjustment reactions to political stress. The cross-cultural impact of adverse political events on psychological adjustment was examined for two closely matched research samples, Arab and Jewish children and Palestinian and Israeli children. METHOD All children completed the Political Life Events scale and the Brief Symptom Inventory in their home languages. RESULTS The hypothesis of a linear relation between adverse events and psychological distress was not confirmed in both studies. In study 1, a direct relation emerged for both Jewish and Arab Israeli children. However, in study 2, when separated by nationality, results revealed opposite trends for each nation. For Israelis there was a linear relation, but for Palestinians there was a consistent inverse relation between increased severity of political life events exposure and distress, both for the global index and for specific symptomatology. CONCLUSION It is proposed that these cross-cultural results stem from differential mediating coping mechanisms, specifically passive versus active strategies, which intervene between the stressor-adjustment link. The need to address short- and long-term consequences of political stress on childrens mental health is discussed.

Efficacy of a school-based primary prevention program for coping with exposure to political violence

A paradigm conceptualizing resilience as factors moderating between political violence exposure and psychological distress administered in a 7-year research project yielded a profile of factors promoting Israeli childrens coping in conflict conditions. Three factors — social support mobilization, selfefficacy, and meaning attribution — were incorporated into a school-based primary intervention program. In a repeated measures design, the study assessed pre to post-test modifications in the three resilience factors and psychological distress in a primary and control intervention condition and the interaction of actual political violence exposure on distress reduction. Results validated modification only of the mobilization of support factor, but nonetheless confirmed the primary programs efficacy in moderating psychological distress particularly among children with low actual political violence exposure, who showed greater distress increases in the control condition. Findings reinforce the educational systems role in promoting resilience among children in conflict environments.

Dimensions of the Political Environment Affecting Children's Mental Health

This study investigates the effect of three psychopolitical factors on childrens psychological adjustment. The three factors are exposure to political life events, impact assigned to experienced events, and perception of threat. Subjects were 397 Israeli children aged 12-13 sampled from three residential areas, which differed along a religious-ideological axis—West Bank settlements, the Golan Heights, and greater Tel Aviv. All children responded to a political life events scale, a questionnaire battery assessing threat perception and ideological conviction, and the Brief Symptom Inventory. Results for two factors confirm the central hypothesis that the factors will be related linearly to distress, indicating increased distress levels with magnification of perceived impact of political events and perception of threat. A secondary hypothesis that ideology mediates the psychopolitical variables to distress relation was not confirmed. These results have implications for comprehension of political environmental dimensions impairing childrens mental health.

The impact of political life events on children's psychological adjustment

Abstract The life events model was extended to study quantitatively the effects of conflictual political conditions on childrens adjustment. Subjects were 397 Israeli children aged 12–13 from three residential areas, each representing different political tensions—central Tel Aviv area, Golan Heights and the occupied West Bank settlements. The Political Life Events (PLE) scale constructed for the study revealed a significant array of measurable adverse political events to which children attribute trauma response, with both severity and impact higher for children from the settlements. The hypotheses of a linear relation between severity and impact of PLE exposure to psychological distress were confirmed for all three areas and for both genders. Implications of these findings relate to the efficacy of the life events model in the political domain and to the data yield on childrens subjective distress and psychiatric symptomatology reactions during an assumably normalized period. Methodological, political a...

The Contributions of Political Life Events to Psychological Distress Among South African

The psychological consequences of adverse political experiences among South African youth were studied in a sample of 540 black and white adolescents from two age groups, evenly divided by gender. Three questionnaires were administered, measuring exposure to political life events, the presence of symptoms of psychopathology, and stressful personal life events during the previous 5 years. The first hypothesis, predicting a substantial contribution of stressful political experiences to psychopathology, was strongly supported; when stressful personal life events were partialed out, a significant effect for political life events remained both on general distress and symptomatology indices. The second hypothesis of a linear relation between exposure to political life events and severity of distress was also confirmed. The findings underscore the enduring impact on childrens mental health of past apartheid policies in South Africa specifically, and adverse political environments in general.

The Drama of Media Coverage of Terrorism: Emotional and Attitudinal Impact on the Audience

The symbiotic relationship between terrorism and its media coverage is explored from the perspective of audience reactions. In an empirical study, effects of television broadcasts of terrorism on viewers’ emotional and attitudinal reactions are examined. Participants were 300 Israeli adults randomly allocated to terrorism or violent nonterrorism broadcasts. Anxiety, anger, stereotypes, and enemy perception were measured prior and subsequent to media exposure. Findings revealed higher levels of both emotional and attitudinal measures consequent to the terrorism versus nonterrorism media exposure. These findings reflect the significant emotional and attitudinal impact on the audience of terrorisms mechanism of self-empowerment via the media.

Parenting style as a moderator of effects of political violence: Cross-cultural comparison of Israeli Jewish and Arab children

This study examined cross-cultural differences in the moderating function of authoritarian, authoritative, and permissive parenting styles for Jewish and Arab Israeli children exposed to political violence. Respondents were parents and children aged 10–11 from 94 families (42 Arab, 52 Jewish). Parents completed the Parenting Styles and Dimensions Questionnaire and a demographic questionnaire, and children completed the Brief Symptom Inventory, Political Life Events Scale, and Negative Life Events Scale. Political violence exposure and parenting style influenced children’s psychological distress. Mothers’ and fathers’ parenting style moderated effects of political-violence exposure differently for Jewish and Arab children. These findings highlight the need to examine both mothers’ and fathers’ parenting style and ways in which parenting style effects are culturally dependent.

Psychiatric effects of protracted conflict and political life events exposure among adolescents in Israel: 1998-2011.

This cross-sectional study investigated relations between conflict exposure and psychiatric symptoms among 8,727 Jewish Israeli adolescents aged 12-17 years from 1998-2011. This 14-year span included periods of terrorism, missile attacks, wars, relocations, military operations, and relative quiet, reflecting a dynamically changing, primarily violent climate. Annual samples from the same cities, geographical regions, and schools throughout the country were assessed for personal political life events (PLE) exposure and for psychiatric symptoms using the Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI; Derogatis & Spencer, ). Data were divided into 8 exposure periods: (a) pre-Intifada 1998-2000, (b) Intifada peak 2001-2003, (c) Intifada recession 2004, (d) evacuation 2005, (e) missiles and the 2006 Lebanon war, (f) peak missiles 2006-2007, (g) Operation Cast Lead 2008-2009, and (h) global terrorism 2010-2011. Results confirmed a relation between type of exposure period, PLE exposure, and psychiatric symptoms. In addition, PLE exposure was positively correlated with psychiatric symptoms (β = .49). A moderating effect of gender on the relationship between PLE exposure and the psychiatric index was found, with elevated symptoms among females (β = .30).