Citation

Ali-Saleh Darawshy N, Haj-Yahia MM. Int. J. Offender Ther. Comp. Criminol. 2018; 62(13): 4236-4256.

Affiliation

The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2018, SAGE Publishing)

DOI

10.1177/0306624X18757616

PMID

29429369

Abstract

This study examined the rates of exposure to community violence (ECV; that is, witnessing and directly experiencing violence) as well as the detrimental consequences of such exposure as reflected in posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) and a decline in psychological well-being (PWB) among parents. In addition, the study examined whether self-efficacy and collective efficacy moderate these consequences. A self-administered questionnaire was filled out by a systematic random sample of 760 Palestinian parents in Israel. The findings indicate that most of them had witnessed such violence, and almost half of them had directly experienced such violence in their lifetime. The rates of ECV were higher for the fathers than the mothers. ECV was found to predict high levels of PTSS and low levels of PWB among parents. In addition, collective efficacy was found only to moderate the relationship between witnessing community violence and PTSS. There is a need to identify adults who are exposed to community violence, as well as to develop culturally adapted and sociopolitically sensitive therapeutic and preventive interventions and projects for provision of assistance following exposure to such violence.

Language: en

Keywords

Palestinian parents; collective efficacy; experiencing community violence; posttraumatic stress symptoms; psychological well-being; self-efficacy; witnessing community violence