TY - JOUR PY - 2011// TI - Resilience and Political Violence: A Cross-Cultural Study of Moderating Effects Among Jewish- and Arab-Israeli Youth JO - Youth and society A1 - Lavi, Iris A1 - Slone, Michelle SP - 845 EP - 872 VL - 43 IS - 3 N2 - Children in countries involved in violent national conflicts experience difficult and, at times, extreme events such as spending long hours in shelters, witnessing terror attacks, or having a family member absent or injured while participating in battle. This study explores the moderating effect of resilience factors, self-esteem, and self-control, on relations between political violence and children's difficulties. Children and mothers from 104 Jewish- and 108 Arab-Israeli families complete questionnaires assessing political violence exposure, self-esteem, self-control, and the child's social, psychological, and behavioral difficulties. Findings show that Israeli children exhibited heightened levels of psychological difficulties with high impact of political violence, a relationship that is partially moderated by self-control. In addition, significant ethnic group differences are found. First, political life events (PLE) are positively related to the child's social, psychological, and behavioral difficulties in the Arab group. Second, the relationship between political life events and the child's difficulties is moderated by self-control in the Jewish group and by self-esteem in the Arab group. Consequences of these results to understanding the impact of political violence and the role of individual resilience during conflict are discussed.

LA - SN - 0044-118X UR - http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0044118X09353437 ID - ref1 ER -