Victor Moin

When disaster becomes commonplace reaction of children and adolescents to prolonged terrorist attacks in Israel.

Summary The aim of this study was to examine, in conditions of prolonged terror, the possible influences of yet another terrorist attack as an additional traumatic event on childrens reactions in the emotional, behavioral, and cognitive spheres, and to identify any mediating factors. The sample included 747 students in junior high schools in three Israeli cities. None of the participants were directly exposed to terrorist attacks, but they all lived with the possibility of daily terror. The research focused on fear as the most common and widespread reaction to terror and war. Short-term and long-term symptoms of fear were studied. It was found that an additional terrorist attack had no significant influence on childrens emotional, cognitive, or behavioral spheres. Terror that has become habitual becomes negligible. Children learn to adjust to loss without experiencing grief.

Acquisition of Russian gender agreement by monolingual and bilingual children

Aim and Objectives/Purpose/Research Questions: The main goal of this study was to examine noun–adjective gender agreement in Russian by comparing bilingual children with diverse L2 backgrounds (English, Finnish, German, and Hebrew) with age-matched monolingual children and monolinguals one year younger. This comparison was made to investigate the influence of L2 grammar on the acquisition of gender agreement by (L1) Russian-speaking children. Design/Methodology/Approach: The participants included four groups of 4–5-year-old bilingual children with Russian as L1 and English, German, Finnish, or Hebrew as L2, who were compared to monolingual children in Russia in two age groups (3–4 and 4–5 years old). The children were matched by socioeconomic status and parents’ educational background. All children were tested individually during one testing session. Agreement data were elicited using a semi-structured elicitation test, with verbal and visual stimuli. Data and Analysis: We used qualitative data analysis to identify types and categories of errors, and quantitative data analysis to compare the tendencies of noun–adjective gender agreement in Russian (L1) between the groups. Findings/Conclusions: Development of gender agreement in the bilingual children from different L2 backgrounds was qualitatively similar to that of the 3–4-year-old monolingual Russian-speaking children. This result suggests that bilingual development in L1 follows the same developmental path as monolingual development, albeit with a delay. In addition, bilingual children whose L2 has grammatical gender (German, Hebrew) outperformed the other bilinguals on gender agreement, indicating that the presence of a grammatical category in both languages spoken by a bilingual facilitates category acquisition. Originality and Significance/Implications: The study contributes to the discussion on how the transparency and phonological saliency might affect the bilingual children’s acquisition of inflectional morphology and on how influence of L2 on L1 might in some cases help and in other cases impede the acquisition of L1.

The Effects of Perceived Community Cohesion on Stress Symptoms Following a Terrorist Attack

ABSTRACT The effects of community cohesion were explored following a terrorist attack in Israel, during which an explosion on a public bus in a metropolitan city killed and wounded multiple individuals. Participants were 115 Israelis who resided in three specified perimeters around the area of impact. Data collected immediately following the attack and 1 month later included demographics, proximity and exposure to the terrorist event, community cohesion, and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms. For individuals reporting low and moderate degrees of exposure to the terror event, PTSD symptoms increased as community cohesion increased. However, for those with high exposure, PTSD symptoms and community cohesion were inversely related. Furthermore, for those who lived closest to the terror event, as community cohesion increased, PTSD symptoms decreased. However, for individuals who lived farther away from the terror event, community cohesion was positively associated with PTSD symptoms. One month following the attack, community cohesion did not significantly predict PTSD symptoms.

Parents’ Choice of a Bilingual Hebrew-Arabic Kindergarten for the Children

Parents’ choices regarding bilingual education are not arbitrary. Parents have background motives, related to their family language and cultural policy, which drive them to integrate their child in a bilingual and bicultural environment. It is inevitable that this choice will have some impact on their child’s linguistic, cognitive and social development.

The Role of Family Background in Early Bilingual Education: The Finnish-Russian Experience

Many educators and parents believe that successful multilingualism is a valuable resource for any society. This is not only because of its role in the successful integration of migrants, but also because of its cognitive potential and the opportunity that it provides to enrich the society’s economic, intellectual and cultural life. The main aim of this study was to expose the family background of those who choose early bilingual Finnish-Russian education in Finland. Who are the people, in Finland, who send their children to bilingual Finnish-Russian kindergartens or preschools, and what are the reasons for this choice? In what way do they believe that this education can be effective? The research focused on comparing the socio-cultural background, the language profile and family language policy of Finnish and Russian parents, and their representations about some of the outcomes of their child’s early bilingual education. The research population consisted of young adult parents, who chose to send their children to bilingual Finnish-Russian kindergartens or preschools in Finland. The overall sample included 185 parents: 79 were Finnish and 106 were Russian. The members of each group shared their views about the motives for their choice, their vision of the child’s bilingual future, their self-evaluation in both languages, and their impressions of the pros and cons of bilingual institutions. They assessed the child’s progress in bilingual development and described family language practices used for support of this development. All parents were satisfied with bilingual education and believed that a multicultural society demands intercultural communication and tolerance, and that the citizens have knowledge of many languages.

The Effect of a Community Project on Sense of Community among Social Work Students: An Exploratory Evaluative Study

This article evaluates the effect of a community project that was adopted by the students of a school of social work in Israel. A quasi-experimental pretest–posttest design was used. The pretest was administered during the planning stage of the project and the posttest a year later, during the implementation period. The findings show a significant positive effect of the project on sense of community among the students. This effect was moderated by students’ ethnic affiliation (Arab or Jewish) and professional commitment. The implications for using community projects to develop a sense of community in schools of social work are discussed.

Poverty in the “Promised Land”: Therapeutic Intervention with Immigrant Caucasus Families in Israel

In this article, the authors describe an attempt to adapt an existing model of therapeutic intervention with poor and disorganized families to ethnic minority immigrant families. Major elements of postmodern thinking along with elements from the narrative approach were utilized as part of the psychosocial intervention with the families. The evaluation of outcome was based on both quantitative and qualitative methods and considered the perspectives of the families as well as those of the social workers. Significant differences before and after the intervention were found within the experimental group, as well as between the experimental and the control groups in the 2nd measurement. In the qualitative analysis, families in the experimental group described greater changes than the control group. The discussion is centered on the attempt to explain the reasons for the models effectiveness with immigrant populations and on the evaluative method.

General Family Image in Intercultural Transition: Soviet Immigrant Families in Israel

This article focuses on one of the important criteria in assessing ones family, namely, general family image (GFI), which directly connects to social comparison. General family image includes various representations about patterns, standards of family life, and couple relations. GFI also characterizes individual predispositions, as well as social cognition, and it plays essential epistemic and esteem maintenance functions in family life. This article examines GFI at both the theoretical and empirical levels, outlining the ways in which the concept can be utilized in the context of family studies. Specific assumptions regarding the main characteristics and functions of GFI, its relation to world view, and quality of family life were empirically tested through the analysis of data on 210 married couples, new immigrants from the former Soviet Union in Israel. Intercultural transition, connected to immigration, provides a natural experimental setting to study the stability and consistency of GFI.