Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Are Security Tensions Associated with Parental Assessment of Current and Past Child Behavior?

  • Original Paper
  • Published:
Journal of Child and Family Studies Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Objective

This research focuses on the associations between living under security tension and parental discrepancies in assessing current and past child behavioral and emotional problems.

Methods

The study included 68 Israeli married couples (N = 136) living in areas considered a conflict zone. Parents assessed their child’s emotional and behavioral problems both at present (after the operation had ended) and retrospectively (before the operation) using Achenbach’s CBCL questionnaire. Level of the parent’s exposure and fear resulting from security threats were assessed.

Results

The study findings indicate positive correlations between the mother and the father’s assessment of current and past child problems. However, mothers assessed the child’s behavior as more severe than fathers. Level of exposure was positively associated with the father’ tendency to assess the child’s problems as severe. Overall, both parents perceived the child as suffering from more problems after the military operation than before.

Conclusions

The study findings suggest that there is a good correspondence between parental assessment for both present and past problems and that security tension is reflected in the father’s awareness of the child’s problems and in the child's elevated problems.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

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

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Achenbach, T. M. (1991). Integrative guide to the 1991 CBCL/4–18, YSR, and TRF profiles. Burlington, VT: University of Vermont, Department of Psychology.

    Google Scholar 

  • Achenbach, T. M., & Edelbrock, C. (1986). Manual for the teacher's report form and teacher version of the child behavior profile. Burlington: University of Vermont, Department of Psychiatry.

    Google Scholar 

  • Achenbach, T. M., & Edelbrock, C. (1983). Manual for the child behavior checklist and revised child behavior profile. Burlington: University of Vermont, Department of Psychiatry.

    Google Scholar 

  • Achenbach, T. M., McConaughy, S. H., & Howell, C. T. (1987). Child/adolescent behavioral and emotional problems: Implications of cross-informant correlations for situational specificity. Psychological Bulletin, 101, 213–232.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Bensimon, M., Solomon, Z., & Horesh, D. (2013). The utility of Criterion A under chronic national terror. The Israel Journal of Psychiatry and Related Sciences, 50(2), 81–83.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Billig., M. (2015). The Jewish settlements in Judea and Samaria (1967–2008): historical overview. Israel Affairs, 21(3), 331–347.

    Google Scholar 

  • Bingham, C. R., Loukas, A., Fitzgerald, H. E., & Zucker, R. A. (2003). Parental ratings of son's behavior problems in high-risk families: convergent validity, internal structure, and interparent agreement. Journal of Personality Assessment, 80(3), 237–251.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Braun-Lewensohn, O., Celestin-Westreich, S., Celestin, L. P., Verleye, G., Verté, D., & Ponjaert-Kristoffersen, I. (2009). Coping styles as moderating the relationships between terrorist attacks and well-being outcomes. Journal of Adolescence, 32, 585–599.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Braun-Lewensohn, O., & Sagy, S. (2011). Coping resources as explanatory factors of stress reactions during missile attacks: comparing Jewish and Arab adolescents. Community Mental Health Journal, 47, 300–310.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • De Los Reyes, A., & Kazadin, A. E. (2005). Informant discrepancies in the assessment of childhood psychopathology: a critical review, theoretical framework, and recommendations for further study. Psychological Bulletin, 131, 483–509.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Dubow, E. F., Boxer, L. R., Huesmann, L. R., Landau, S., Dvir, S., Shikaki, K., & Ginges, J. (2012). Cumulative effects of exposure to violence on post-traumatic stress in Palestinian and Israeli youth. Journal of Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology, 41, 837–844.

    PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Duhig, A. M., Renk, K., Epstein, M. K., & Phares, V. (2000). Interparental agreement on internalizing, externalizing, and total behavioral problems: a meta-analysis. Clinical Psychology: Science and Practice, 7, 435–453.

    Google Scholar 

  • Florian, V., Mikulincer, M., & Hirschberger, G. (2002). The anxiety-buffering function of close relationships: Evidence that relationship commitment acts as a terror management mechanism. Journal of Personality and Social Pscyhology, 82(4), 527–542.

    Google Scholar 

  • Freedman, S. A., & Mashiach Tuval, R. (2018). Shared trauma reality in war: Mental health therapists’ experience. PLoS ONE13(2). https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0191949.

  • Gelkopf, M., Solomon, Z., & Bleich, A. (2013). A longitudinal study of changes in psychological responses to continuous terrorism. Israeli Journal of Psychiatry Related Science, 50(2), 100–109.

    Google Scholar 

  • Gilligan, C. (1982). In a different voice: psychological theory and women's development. Cambridge MA: Harvard University Press.

    Google Scholar 

  • Greenberg, J., Pyszczynski, T., & Solomon, S. (1986). The causes and consequences of a need for self-esteem: a terror management theory. In public self and private self (pp. 189–212). New York, NY: Springer.

    Google Scholar 

  • Grifith, G. M., Hastings, R. P., & Petalas, M. A. (2014). Brief report: Fathers' and mothers' ratings of behavioral and emotional problems in siblings of children with autism spectrum disorder. Journal of Autism Developmental Disorder, 44, 1230–1235. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-013-1969-6.

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Grigorenko, E. L., Geiser, C., Slobodskaya, H. R., & Francis, D. J. (2010). Cross-informant symptoms from CBCL, TRF, and YSR: trait and method variance sample of Russian youth. Psychological Assessment, 22(3), 893–911.

    PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Guttmann-Steinmetz, S., Shoshani, A., Farhan, K., Aliman, M., & Hirschberger, G. (2012). Living in the crossfire: Effects of exposure to political violence on Palestinian and Israeli mothers and children. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 36(1), 71–78.

    Google Scholar 

  • Harvell, L. A. & Nisbett, G. S. (Eds.) (2016). Denying death: an interdisciplinary approach to terror management theory. New York, NY and London: Routledge.

    Google Scholar 

  • Harvey, E. A., Youngwirth, S. D., Thakar, D. A., & Errazuriz, P. A. (2009). Predicting attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder and oppositional defiant disorder from preschool diagnostic assessments. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychiatry, 77, 349–354.

    Google Scholar 

  • Itzhaky, L., Gelkopf, M., Levin, Y., Stein, J. Y., & Solomon, Z. (2017). Psychiatric reactions to continuous traumatic stress: a latent profile analysis of two Israeli samples. Journal of Anxiety Disorders, 51, 94–100.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Kinsman, A. M., & Wildman, B. G. (2001). Mother and child perceptions of child functioning: relationship to maternal distress. Family Process, 40, 163–172.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Kithakye, M., Morris, A. S., Terranova, A. M., & Myers, S. S. (2010). The Kenyan political conflict and children’s adjustment. Child Development, 81, 1114–1128.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Langberg, J. M., Epstein, J. N., Simon, J. O., Loren, R. E. A., & Arnold, L. E., et al. (2010). Parent agreement on ratings of children's attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder and broadhand externalizing behaviors. Journal of Emotional and Behavioral Disorders, 18, 41–50.

    PubMed  PubMed Central  Google Scholar 

  • Laufer, A., Solomon, Z., & Levine, S. Z. (2010). Elaboration on posttraumatic growth in youth exposed to terror: The role of religiosity and political ideology. Social Psychiatry and Psychiatric Epidemiology, 45, 647–653.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Laufer, A., & Solomon, Z. (2011). The role of religious orientations in youth’s posttraumatic symptoms after exposure to terror. Journal of Religion and Health, 50, 687–699.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Mascendaro, P. M., Herman, K. C., & Webster-Stratton, C. (2012). Parent discrepancies in ratings of young children’s co-occurring internalizing symptoms. School Psychology Quarterly, 27(3), 134–143.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Moreno, J. M., Silverman, W. K., Saavedra, L. M., & Phares, V. (2008). Fathers’ ratings in the assessment of their child’s anxiety symptoms: A comparison to mothers' ratings and their association with paternal symptomatology. Journal of Family Psychology, 22, 915–919.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Mosley, J., & Thompson, E. (1995). Fathering behavior and child outcomes: the role of race and poverty. In W. Marsiglio (Ed.), Father-hood: contemporary theory, research, and social policy (pp. 148–165). Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.

    Google Scholar 

  • Pagorek-Eshel, S., & Dekel, R. (2015). Parental self-efficacy and paternal involvement in the context of political violence. Clinical Social Work Journal, 43(4), 388–397.

    Google Scholar 

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

    Google Scholar 

  • Schroeder, J. F., Hood, M. M., & Hughes, H. M. (2010). Inter-parent agreement on the syndrome Scales of the Child Behvior Checklist (CBCL): correspondence and discrepancies. Journal of Child and Family Studies, 19(5), 646–653.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shechory Bitton, M. (2013). The impact of repetitive and chronic exposure to terror attacks on Israeli mothers’ and children‘s functioning. Israel Journal of Psychiatry and Related Sciences, 50(3), 157–163.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Shechory Bitton, M. & Cohen Louck, K. (2017). Spousal coping strategies in the shadow of terrorism. Journal of Interpersonal Violence. 1–21. https://doi.org/10.1177/0886260517744191.

  • Shechory Bitton, M. & Cohen Louck, K. (2016). Does fear of terrorism differ from fear of crime and sexual assault: A question of geographical location and residential area. International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology. 1–21. https://doi.org/10.1177/0306624x16658472.

  • Shechory Bitton, M., & Laufer, A. (2018). Children’s emotional and behavioral problems in the shadow of terrorism: The case of Israel. Children and Youth Services Review, 86, 302–307.

    Google Scholar 

  • Shechory Bitton, M., & Laufer, A. (2017). PTSD and posttraumatic growth among Israeli mothers: Opposite facets of exposure to terrorism. Stress and Health. https://doi.org/10.1002/smi.2754.

  • Shechory Bitton, M. & Silawi, Y. (2016). Do Jews and Arabs differ in their fear of terrorism and crime: The Israeli case. Journal of Interpersonal Violence. https://doi.org/10.1177/0886260516674198. http://jiv.sagepub.com/content/early/2016/10/17/0886260516674198.full.pdf?ijkey=OTG937kIbOLWDib&keytype=finite.

  • Solomon, Z., Gelkopf, M., & Bleich, A. (2005). Is terror gender blind? Gender differences in reaction to terror events. Social Psychiatry and Psychiatry Epidemiology. 1–8. https://doi.org/10.1007/s00127-005-0973.

  • Solomon, Z., & Lavi, T. (2005). Israeli youth in the second Intifada: PTSD and future orientation. Journal of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry, 44(11), 1167–1175.

    Google Scholar 

  • Tatar, M., Amram, S., & Kelman, T. (2011). Help-seeking behaviours of adolescents in relation to terrorist attacks: the perceptions of Israeli parents. British Journal of Guidance & Counselling, 39(2), 131–147.

    Google Scholar 

  • Taubman‐Ben‐Ari, O., Findler, L., & Mikulincer, M. (2002). The effects of mortality salience on relationship strivings and beliefs: the moderating role of attachment style. British Journal of Social Psychology, 41(3), 419–441.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Treutler, C. M., & Epkins, C. C. (2003). Are discrepancies among child, mother, and father reports on children’s behavior related to parents' psychological symptoms and aspects of parent-child relationships? Journal of Abnormal Child Psychology, 31(1), 13–27.

    PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Yuh, J. (2017). Do mothers and fathers perceive their child's problems and prosocial behaviors differently? Journal of Child and Family Studies, 26, 3045–3054.

    Google Scholar 

  • Van der Oord, S., Prins, P. J. M., Oosterlann, J., & Emmelkamp, P. M. G. (2006). The association between parenting stress, depressed mood and informant agreement in ADHD and ODD. Behavior Research and Therapy, 44, 1585–1595.

    Google Scholar 

  • Van der Veen-Mulders, L., Nauta, M. H., Timmerman, M. E., van den Hoofdakker, B. J., & Hoekstra, P. J. (2017). Predictors of discrepancies between fathers and mothers in rating behaviors of preschool children with and without ADHD. European Child and Adolescence Psychiatry, 26, 365–376.

    Google Scholar 

Download references

Authors’ Contributions

AL: wrote the paper and assisted with data analysis. MSB: designed and executed the study, analyzed the data, and collaborated in writing the paper.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Behavioral Science, Netanya Academic College, 1 Ha-Universita St., Netanya, 4223587, Israel

    Avital Laufer

  2. Department of Criminology, Ariel University, Ariel, Israel

    Mally Shechory Bitton

Authors
  1. Avital Laufer
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Mally Shechory Bitton
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Avital Laufer.

Ethics declarations

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical Approval

The study was approved by the IRB committee of Ariel University and an informed consent statement was signed by the parents.

Additional information

Publisher’s note Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Laufer, A., Shechory Bitton, M. Are Security Tensions Associated with Parental Assessment of Current and Past Child Behavior?. J Child Fam Stud 29, 1582–1588 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-019-01677-1

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-019-01677-1

Search

Navigation