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 children's 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 children's mental health is discussed.