The development and validation of the Palestinian children's traumatic events checklist in a war-torn environment.

Traumatic experiences in childhood can lead to trauma symptoms and impaired mental health, especially when children are exposed to war and political violence. Despite significant attention to child's exposure to traumas, few instruments to detect potentially traumatic events have been validated psychometrically. Our study aimed to develop, adapt and validate a user-friendly traumatic events checklist in Palestinian children living in three areas affected by low-intensity war and ongoing political and military violence.

Positive and negative effects of child's agency on trauma symptoms and psychological difficulties in war-like conditions. The mediating role of hope and life satisfaction.

Background: Children affected by war and political violence deploy agentic competencies to cope with trauma symptoms and psychological difficulties. However, it does not always act as a protective factor to help them adjust to potentially traumatic events.

Aims: We expected to explore the association between agency, trauma symptoms and psychological difficulties and the mediating role of hope and life satisfaction in a group of child victims of military violence in Palestine.

Hope and life satisfaction in Palestinian children victim of military violence: The predictive role of agency, potentially traumatic experiences and symptoms of trauma.

Background: Children exposed political violence deploy resources to maintain functioning, hope and life satisfaction.

Objective: We sought to explore whether or not children promote hope and life satisfaction trough agency, psychological difficulties, potentially traumatic experiences and symptoms in Palestine.

Participants And Setting: 965 children (494 males and 471 females) in multiple geographical contexts, and areas were involved.

Trajectories of quality of life and mental health during the Covid-19 lockdown and six months after in Italy. A longitudinal exploration.

Aim: Covid-19 pandemic and its relative containment measures have affected populations' quality of life and psychological well-being worldwide. The fear related to the pandemic and the imposed containment measures has acted as a trigger causing a global increase in negative mental health states. Thus, we aimed to explore the relationship between fear of covid-19 and mental health via QoL (the first and the second lockdown in Italy, 2020).

Impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on Mental Health and Quality of Life. An Exploratory Study During the First Outbreak in Italy.

The coronavirus pandemic has been sweeping the world for more than a year. As physical health begins to stabilize in the western world, an increasing concern is related to the impact of the virus and its containment measures on people's mental health. This work aimed to explore the effect of demographic factors (age, gender, level of education, and socioeconomic status) and variables such as fear of COVID-19 and social support in predicting the quality of life and mental health of adults during the first wave of the pandemic in Italy.

Measuring agency in children: The development and validation of the War Child Agency Assessment Scale - Palestinian version (WCAAS-Pal).

In the present article, we aimed at construing a new quantitative measure of children's agency in Palestine. Within a socio-ecological and culturally and contextually informed perspective, the study introduces the development of a new instrument to investigate and evaluate children's agentic practices within their living contexts and their daily lives. First, we evaluated the model of measurement of WCAAS-Pal using a sequential exploratory factor analysis (EFA) and confirmatory factor analysis (CFA).

Human (in)security and psychological well-being in Palestinian children living amidst military violence: A qualitative participatory research using interactive maps.

Background: Research has widely evidenced the effects of war and political violence on the functioning of children, with a great accord in diagnosing children's psychological burdens related to their exposure to violence. Yet, within this literature, the influence of the chronic sense of insecurity on their psychological functioning during and after hostilities remains unexplored.

Methods: The present study aimed at exploring interrelated relationships between the perceived insecurity and the children's psychological well-being and their adjustment to trauma.

When Agency Turns Into a Risk Factor: A Literature Review of the Negative Consequences of Children's Agentic Behaviors on Their Physical and Psychological Well-Being.

: Research has widely documented how, even in conditions of extreme poverty, deprivation, or oppression, children are competent and situated actors, capable of actively mobilizing internal, external, or social resources to protect themselves from their environments and safeguard their everyday lives. Yet, the ways in which their agency might support their well-being or instead increase their own vulnerability has remained underexplored. : The present study aims to provide an assessment of all those contributions which, over the past 20 years, have focused on both the positive and negative consequences of children's actionability, revealing children's self-destructive acts alongside their self-empowering and protective ones.

Wellbeing, symptoms of trauma, and personal resources in Palestinian professional helpers: a cross-sectional quantitative survey.

Background: Professional helpers working in adverse circumstances are at risk of developing psychosocial stress and signs of primary and secondary trauma (eg, anxiety and hyperarousal). We used modelling to investigate whether and to what extent personal resources (ie, post-traumatic growth, sense of coherence, and wellbeing) of Palestinian helpers affected their experience of psychological distress and trauma symptoms.

Methods: Eligible participants were professional health-care providers working in Gaza and the West Bank, occupied Palestinian territory, between June and October, 2018.

Spatial agency among children living in the Dheisheh refugee camp in the West Bank: a qualitative investigation of space and place as risk and protection factors from political and military violence.

Background: In Palestine, the ongoing Israeli occupation shapes and endangers all spaces that are used by children in their everyday lives. In this study, Palestinian children were considered active agents in their lives, both affecting and being affected by the world around them. Our research aimed to explore the role of resources, competencies, and attitudes of spatial agency in the lives of children in the occupied Palestinian territory.

Palestinian children living amidst political and military violence deploy active protection strategies against psychological trauma: How agency can mitigate traumatic stress via life satisfaction.

This exploratory study assessed the association between agency and life satisfaction, as well as the potential for life satisfaction, in its turn, to alleviate trauma symptoms and reduce negative emotion in a group of children exposed to war and military violence in Palestine. Two hundred and fifty Palestinian children, who had been recruited at primary schools in urban and rural areas, and refugee camps, completed the Multilevel Student's Life Satisfaction Scale, Children's Hope Scale (CHS), Children's Impact of Event Scale (CRIES) and Positive and Negative Affect Scales. We performed structural equation modelling to evaluate the effects of agency on negative emotions and trauma symptoms via life satisfaction.

Alternative Ways of Capturing the Legacies of Traumatic Events: A Literature Review of Agency of Children Living in Countries Affected by Political Violence and Armed Conflicts.

Background: It has been revealed that the construct of agency plays a crucial role in contributing to children's positive functioning and well-being despite their traumatic contexts. Yet there is little agreement within the literature about the definition of agency, how agency is displayed by children, or how it should be investigated.

Aims: This study provides a synthetic overview of studies that have analyzed the agency of children living in contexts affected by political violence and armed conflict.

Spatial agency as a source of resistance and resilience among Palestinian children living in Dheisheh refugee camp, Palestine.

Research has widely documented the effects of war and political violence on the functioning and well-being of children. Yet, children's agency in the face of political violence remains underexplored. The present study aimed at exploring the sources of spatial agency that children draw on to counteract the harmful consequences of ongoing exposure to trauma.

Survival and Resilience Among Palestinian Women: A Qualitative Analysis Using Individual and Collective Life Events Calendars.

Responding to the need for more information concerning the mental health and psychological well-being of women living amid political oppression and war, this study aimed to explore specific factors that contribute to women's individual and collective perceptions about war and the associated traumatic life events that occurred during their lives. Moving from a socioecological and culture-informed perspective, we used narrative timelines elicited from 21 Palestinian women in Gaza, both individually and collectively, as a tool for both data collection and intervention. A deductive, top-down, thematic content analysis procedure was used to categorize data.

Agency via Life Satisfaction as a Protective Factor From Cumulative Trauma and Emotional Distress Among Bedouin Children in Palestine.

Adopting an ecological perspective on children's functioning and psychological well-being, we investigated the association between agency and life satisfaction, and its bearing on trauma symptoms and negative emotions in a group of Bedouin children living in the occupied Palestinian territories. Specifically, we hypothesized that the more children were agentic, the more they would be satisfied with their lives; and that greater life satisfaction would be associated with better affect balance, and reduced trauma symptoms. A sample of 286 Bedouin children attending primary schools in four different villages in the Jordan Valley completed the , Structural equation modeling was performed to evaluate the cumulative network of direct and indirect effects between children's agency, life satisfaction, and trauma symptoms.

Risk and Protective Factors Among Palestinian Women Living in a Context of Prolonged Armed Conflict and Political Oppression.

Research has widely documented the effects of war and political violence on the functioning and well-being of adults and children. Yet, within this literature, women's agency in the face of war-related adversity and political violence remains underexplored. The present study was conducted in the Gaza Strip in the aftermath of the most recent war on Gaza in 2014, with the aim of investigating the consequences of war and political violence for women's mental health and psychological functioning.

Agency and life satisfaction in Bedouin children exposed to conditions of chronic stress and military violence: A two-wave longitudinal study in Palestine.

Bedouin children in Palestine are at risk of developing trauma-related pathologies as a result of chronic exposure to severe political and military violence. Little is known about their coping abilities and survival skills. The aim of our study was to longitudinally test the contribution of agency to predicting life satisfaction and the power of life satisfaction to mitigate traumatic stress in a group of Bedouin children exposed to prolonged military violence in West Bank, occupied Palestinian territories.

Narrating hope and resistance: A critical analysis of sources of agency among Palestinian children living under military violence.

Background: In light of critical and socioconstructionist theories, the aim of our research was to analyze source of agency, psychological adjustment to trauma as protective factors against political violence in children living in three different refugee camps in Palestine, as well as exploring the risks to which these children are exposed.

Methods: Thematic content analysis was applied to children's written and drawn productions in order to extract the main categories and themes.

Results: Four main domains of agency emerged from the analysis: personal growth, political well-being, social relationships, and geographical context.