Skip to main content

Teenagers Response to Threat of War and Terror: Gender and the Role of Social Systems

Community Mental Health Journal volume 43, pages 359–374 (2007)Cite this article

Abstract

This study focuses on the role of gender and the way social systems (family and friends’ support, stress attributed to parents, friends and others in the community) are perceived in contributing to the reaction to stressors of war and threat of terror among teenagers living in Israel along the Lebanese border. The study was implemented shortly after Israel’s withdrawal from Lebanon with a sample of 353 teenagers. The study is based on the teenagers’ self-report. The results reveals the following: (a) gender relates significantly to level of stress but not to general life satisfaction; (b) stress attributed to the parents and to the peers has a greater contribution to the level of stress than the supportive family atmosphere and peer support; (c) stress attributed to the parents and peers was found to be a mediator between gender and level of stress; (d) supportive family atmosphere was found to be a mediator between gender and one measurement of stress, while peer support was not found to have any mediating role. Special attention is given to the finding that stress attributed to parents and friends has greater significance than the support provided by them.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution.

Access options

Buy single article

Instant access to the full article PDF.

USD 39.95

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Figure 1
Figure 2

References

  • Antonovski A. (1987) Unraveling the mystery of health. Jossey Bass, San Francisco

    Google Scholar 

  • Bar-Tal D. (2001) Why does fear override hope in societies engulfed by intractable conflict, as it does in the Israeli society? Political Psychology 22:601–627

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Bar-Tal Y., Lurie O., Glick D. (1994) The effect of gender on the stress process in Israeli soldiers during the Gulf War. Anxiety, Stress and Coping 7:263–276

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Boss P. (1987) Family stress. In: Sussman M. B., Steinmetz S. K. (Eds.), Handbook of marriage and the family, Sage, Newbury Park, CA, pp. 695–723

    Google Scholar 

  • Bradburn N. M. (1969) The structure of psychological well-being. Aladdin, Chicago

    Google Scholar 

  • Bradburn N. M., Caplovitz D. (1965) Report on happiness. Aladdin, Chicago

    Google Scholar 

  • Bronfenbrenner, U. (2005). Child care in the Anglo-Saxon mode. In U. Bronfenbrenner (Ed.), Making human being human: Bioecological perspectives on human development. (pp.274–282). Sage, Thousand Oaks, CA

    Google Scholar 

  • Cacioppo J. T., Berntson G. G., Sheridan J. F., McClintock M. K. (2000) Multilevel integrative analysis of human behavior: Social neuroscience and the complementing nature of social and biological approaches. Psychological Bulletin 126:829–843

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Cacioppo J. T., Gardner W. L. (1999) Emotion. Annual Review of Psychology 50:191–214

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Cairns E., Dawes A. (1996) Children: Ethnic and political violence – A commentary. Child Development 67:129–139

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Campbell A. (1976) Subjective measure of well-being. American Psychologist 31:117–124

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Chimienti G., Abu Nasr J. (1992). Children reactions to war – related stress: The influence of gender, age and mother’s reaction. International Journal of Mental Health 21:72–86

    Google Scholar 

  • Cicchetti K., Garmezy N. (1993) Prospects and promises in the study of resilience. Development and Psychopathology 5:597–603

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Cowen E. L., Wyman P. A., Work W. C., Iker M. R. (1995) A preventive intervention for enhancing resilience among highly stressed urban children. The Journal of Primary Prevention 15:247–326

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Dar Y., Kimhi S. (2001). Military service and self-perceived maturation among Israeli youth. Journal of Youth and Adolescence 30:427–448

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Derogatis L. R., Spencer P. M. (1982) The Brief Symptom Inventory: Administration, scoring and procedures manual – I. Clinical Psychometric Research, Baltimore

    Google Scholar 

  • Diener, E. (1994). Assessing subjective well being: Progress and opportunities. Social Indicators Research 31:103–157

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Diener E. (2000) Subjective well-being: The science of happiness and a proposal for a national index. American Psychologist 55:34–43

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Garbarino J., Kostelny K. (1996a) What do we need to know to understand children in war and community violence. In: Simon B., Apfel R. J. (Eds.), Minefield in their hearts: The mental health of children in war and communal violence Yale University Press, New Haven pp. 33–51

    Google Scholar 

  • Garbarino J., Kostelny K. (1996b) The effect of political violence on Palestinian children’s behavior problems: A risk accumulation model. Child Development 67:33–45

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Garbarino J., Kostelny K., Dubrow N. (1991) No place to be a child: Growing up in a war zone. D.C. Heath and Company, Lexington, MA

    Google Scholar 

  • Gidron Y. (2002) Post traumatic stress disorder after terrorist attacks: A review. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disease 190:118–121

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Greenbaum C., Erlich C., Toubiana Y. (1993) Sex differences in delayed effects of exposure to Golf War stress by Israeli city and settler children. In: Fox N. A., Leavitt L. A. (Eds.), The psychological effects of war and violence on children. Erlbaum, Hillsdale, NJ pp. 109–130

    Google Scholar 

  • Hartup W. W. (1996) The company they keep: Friendships and their development significance. Child Development 67:1–13

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Hobfoll S. E. (2001) The influence of culture, community, and the nested-self in the stress process: Advancing conservation of resources theory. Applied Psychology: An International Review 50:337–421

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hobfoll E. S., Canetti-Nisim D., Johnson J. R. (2006) Exposure to terrorism, stress-related mental health symptoms, and defensive coping among a nationally representative sample in Israel. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology 74:207–218

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Hobfoll S. E., Spielberger C. D. (2003) Family stress: Integrating theory and measurement. In: Boss P., Mulligan C. (Eds.), Family stress: Classic and contemporary readings. Sage, Thousand Oaks, CA pp. 142–157

    Google Scholar 

  • Jensen P. S. (1996) Practical approaches to research with children in violent settings. In Simon B., Apfel R. J. (Eds.) Minefield in their hearts: The mental health of children in war and communal violence. Yale University Press, New Haven

    Google Scholar 

  • Kimhi S., Shamai M. (2004) Community resilience and the impact of stress: Adult response to Israel’s withdrawal from Lebanon. Journal of Community Psychology 32:439–453

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lazarus R. S., Folkman S. (1984) Stress, appraisal and coping. Springer, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Maxwell K. A. (2002). Friend: The role of peer influence adolescent risk behaviors. Journal of Youth and adolescence 31:267–277

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Milgram N. (1994) Israel and the Gulf War: The major events and selected studies. Anxiety, Stress and Coping 7:205–215

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Miller K. E. (1996) The effect of state terrorism and exile on Indigenous Guatemalen refugee children: A mental health assessment and analysis of children narratives. Child Development 67:89–106

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Myers D. G. (2000) The funds, friends and faith of happy people. American Psychologist 55:56–67

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Osofsky J. D. (1997) Children in Violent Society. Guilford, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Punamaki R. (1987) Factors affecting the mental health of Palestinian children exposed to political violence. International Journal of Mental Health 18:63–79

    Google Scholar 

  • Ronen T., Rahav G., Rosenbaum M. (2003) Children’s reaction to war situation as a function of age and sex. Anxiety, Stress and Coping 16:59–69

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sack W. H., Clarke G. N., Seeley J. (1996) Multiple forms of stress in Cambodian adolescent refugees. Child Development 67:107–116

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Sandvik, E., Diener, E., & Seidlitz, L. (1993). Subjective well being: The convergence and stability of self report and non self report measures. Journal of Personality 61:317–342

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shamai M. (2001) Parents’ perception of their children in a context of shared political uncertainty. Family and Child Social Work 6:249–260

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shamai M. (2002). Parents’ perceptions of their children in a context of shared political uncertainty: The case of Jewish settlers in the West Bank before and after the Oslo Peace Agreement. Child and Adolescence Social work 19:57–75

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shamai, M., & Kimhi, S. (2006). Exposure to threat of war and terror, political attitude, stress and life satisfaction among teenagers in Israel. Journal of Adolescence 29:165–176

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Sobel M. E. (1982) Asymptotic intervals for indirect effects in structural equations models. In: Leinhart S. (Ed.) Sociological methodology 1982. Jossey-Bass, San Francisco pp. 290–312

    Google Scholar 

  • Solomon Z., Mikulincer M., Waysman M., Marlowe D. (1991) Delayed and immediate onset posttraumatic stress disorder: I. Differential clinical characteristics. Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology 26:1–7

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Walsh F. (1998) Strengthening family resilience. Guilford, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Werner, E. E. (1989). High risk children in young adulthood: A longitudinal study from birth to 32 years. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry 59:72–81

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Senior lecturer at the School of Social Work, University of Haifa, Mount Carmel, Haifa, 31905, Israel

    Michal Shamai Ph.D.

  2. Senior lecturer at the Psychology Department, Tel-Hai Academic College, Upper Galilee, 12210, Israel

    Shaul Kimhi Ph.D.

Authors
  1. Michal Shamai Ph.D.
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Shaul Kimhi Ph.D.
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Michal Shamai Ph.D..

Additional information

Michal Shamai, Ph.D., is a senior lecturer at the School of Social Work, University of Haifa, Mount Carmel, Haifa, 31905, Israel.

Shaul Kimhi, Ph.D., is a senior lecturer at the Psychology Department, Tel-Hai Academic College, Upper Galilee, 12210, Israel.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Shamai, M., Kimhi, S. Teenagers Response to Threat of War and Terror: Gender and the Role of Social Systems. Community Ment Health J 43, 359–374 (2007). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10597-006-9080-5

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10597-006-9080-5

Keywords

  • threat of war and terror
  • gender
  • social system
  • stress