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Growing Up on the Edge: A Community-Based Mental Health Intervention for Children in Gaza

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Abstract

The Gaza Strip is a notoriously high-conflict area, but few large-scale studies have examined the rates of psychiatric distress and emotional/behavioral problems among Gaza youth, and there are few trauma-informed, scaleable intervention options. Studies in existence have used smaller samples or have examined focal problems such as posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or aggression. Here, we examine the mental health burden of young individuals (ages 8-13) in Gaza across a broad range of symptoms, and demonstrate the impact of a community-based, trauma-informed program, Eye to the Future. At the outset of this supportive youth program, over 2000 children and adolescent youth and their parents reported on child well-being using standardized measures with established global norms (the Child Behavior Checklist and Youth Self Report). These measures examine symptoms broadly (e.g. anxiety, depression, social problems, attention problems, aggression, etc.). Relative to U.S. population estimates, children in Gaza had between 2.5- and 17-times higher point prevalence of clinical mental health problems. The most significant clinical concern was anxiety, but overall, their symptoms were not confined to posttraumatic stress as a disorder and were instead broadly dispersed. However, these concerns were responsive to intervention: over the course of a six-month community psychosocial program, symptoms ameliorated, with approximately 50–70% showing reliable improvement at post-program (varying by measure). These gains were maintained in a 9-month follow-up. Future work should consider the broader mental health impact, beyond PTSD and aggression, and incorporate community supports into addressing mental health among children in the region.

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Funding

Grants by USAID and Mercy Corps were awarded to CARE International to administer the program.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. The New School, Department of Psychology, 80 Fifth Avenue, Floor 6, New York, NY, 10011, USA

    Wendy D’Andrea, Adjoa Aboagye, Kellie Ann Lee, Steven Freed, Brandon Joachim, Vivian Khedari-DePierro, Ellen H. Yates, Annedore Wilmes & Shoshana Krohner

  2. CARE Palestine (West Bank/Gaza), 6 AlJozeh St., Bet Hanina, Jerusalem, P.O.Box 54258, Jerusalem, 91541, Israel

    Saaed Madhoun & Ahmed Hennawi

  3. Save the Children International, Middle East, North Africa, and Eastern Europe Regional Office, PO Box 941878, Amman, 11194, Jordan

    Ahmed Hennawi

  4. Edgework Consulting, 114 State St, 4th Floor, Boston, MA 02109, USA

    Lou Bergholz

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  1. Wendy D’Andrea
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  2. Adjoa Aboagye
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Correspondence to Wendy D’Andrea.

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Drs. D’Andrea, Aboagye and Freed served as consultants to the program to design the monitoring and evaluation plan. Mr. Bergholz was contracted to design the intervention.

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D’Andrea, W., Aboagye, A., Lee, K. et al. Growing Up on the Edge: A Community-Based Mental Health Intervention for Children in Gaza. Res Child Adolesc Psychopathol 52, 833–848 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10802-023-01124-2

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