Longitudinal study on the impact of childhood sexual abuse on sexual assertiveness: The mediating role of sexual fantasy.

Background: One of the devastating long-term outcomes of childhood sexual abuse (CSA) is its effect on sexual assertiveness, manifested by the limited ability to initiate desired sexual interactions, express one's sexuality, and refuse unwanted sexual activities.

Objective: This study examined a model in which the relation between CSA and sexual assertiveness was mediated by survivors' subjective experience of their sexuality, as reflected by their subjective experience of sexual fantasy.

Participants And Setting: Three-hundred-and-sixty-three adults participated in this longitudinal study.

Continuing bonds and the posthumous child.

The strategies that bereaved individuals use to establish an ongoing bond with the deceased have attracted considerable attention. However, the narratives of young widows pregnant at the time of their partner's death reveal unique strategies that have not yet received attention in the literature. This interpretive phenomenological research explores the strategies employed by 13 Israeli widows who lost their partners while pregnant.

Meanings of anti-sexual assault activism among adults who underwent child sexual abuse: "I survived by knowing that I was going to act".

Background: Despite the acknowledged importance of advocacy among individuals who experienced violence, there is limited scholarly exploration of how adult individuals who experienced child sexual abuse (CSA) perceive and engage in anti-sexual assault activism.

Objective: This study, conducted in Israel by the Israeli Public Inquiry on CSA, explores how adult activists, who are also CSA survivors, perceive anti-sexual assault activism, the meanings they attribute to their involvement, and how their childhood trauma connects to their activism.

Methods: The study employed semi-structured interviews with 14 individuals who experienced CSA, predominantly from the Jewish community.

"It's Like Doctor Jekyll and Mister Hyde": The Construction of Moral Identity by Israeli Men Who Pay Women for Sex.

This study examined how Israeli men who pay women for sex (MPWS) construct and sustain a moral identity within the social context that often portrays them as deviants, perpetrators, and abusers, thereby challenging their ability to maintain a respectful and dignified image. Twenty-three Israeli MPWS participated in in-depth semi-structured interviews, which were then analyzed using constructivist grounded theory method. Using the theoretical framework moral reflexivity, we conceptualize three central dynamics of constructing and sustaining a moral identity in the context of paying for sex: Maintaining an intact moral self by resisting the moral conflict; presenting a reflexive agonizing moral self; and constructing a moral self through identity fragmentation.

Coping, meaning in life, and quality of life during ongoing conflict: insights from Israeli populations.

Background: Conducted in May 2024, this study examines the well-being of Israeli evacuees and non-evacuees from conflict zones. We assess health-related quality of life (HRQoL), meaning in life (MIL), coping strategies, psychological symptoms, and self-mastery. Aims include exploring effects of trauma and socio-demographics on HRQoL and MIL, analyzing mediating roles of psychological symptoms and coping, and evaluating if evacuation status moderates these relationships during ongoing conflict.

Psychological Distress, Resources, and Coping Strategies Among Evacuees and Non-Evacuees From an Armed Conflict Zone: A Network Analysis.

This study focuses on two groups: evacuees from Israel's southern and northern frontline communities following the October 7th Hamas attack, and individuals from regions not directly threatened. Using network analysis, we identified key associations and central nodes related to stress indicators (i.e.

To ventilate or not to ventilate: A qualitative analysis of physicians' experience during the first and second waves of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Little is known about experiences of physicians when deciding on initiating life support during medical crises of mass casualties and undersupply. We performed a qualitative analysis of interviews with 14 physicians about their decision-making experience when considering initiating mechanical ventilation in patients with severe COVID-19 during the early pandemic. Three themes were revealed: (a) The accumulating clinical experience with invasive ventilation, and the physicians' perception of ventilation as effective or futile in these patients; (b) Preferences of patients and their families regarding mechanical ventilation; and (c) Economic, logistic, and organizational considerations of the undersupplied healthcare system.

"As long as they remember me, I am alive": Commemoration and memory through stickers.

This study explores the phenomenon of memorial stickers commemorating victims of the October 7, 2023, massacre and subsequent Israel-Hamas war. Analyzing 600 stickers collected across Israel, we examine how these artifacts shape personal and collective memory of these tragic events. Using content analysis, visual data analysis, and ethnography of texts, we investigate the stickers' distribution, textual content, and visual elements.

"They are your sub-group": The experience of siblinghood in out-of-home placements as conveyed by adults who aged out of family group homes in Israel.

Background: Sibling bonds play a crucial role in the development, well-being, and resilience of individuals, particularly during challenging life circumstances. However, there is limited research on siblinghood within the context of out-of-home placements.

Objective: This study aims to investigate the experiences of siblinghood among adults who aged out of family group homes in Israel.

Self-Rated Health and Mortality Among Older Adults in Israel: A Comparison Between Jewish and Arab Populations.

: Self-rated health (SRH) has been shown to predict mortality across a lifespan. However, its predictive value might differ between populations. We compared the association between SRH and mortality in Israeli Jewish and Arab older adults (65+).

Provision of supportive care by an NGO in the face of a dual challenge: cancer and wartime.

Purpose: In this study, we explored the work of Halasartan (Stop Cancer), an Israeli nongovernmental organization (NGO) and unique social support network for cancer patients and survivors aged 18-44, during a war period. Drawing on the conservation of resources (COR) theory, we examined whether self-efficacy, social support, psychological distress, and participation in activities that were geared toward alleviating the war situation at Time 1 (T1) would predict engagement in such activities at Time 2 (T2).

Methods: A longitudinal design with two time-points was used, and NGO members completed self-report questionnaires.

Risk or opportunity? Child protection workers' perceptions of children's participation in the protection system.

Background: Over the last decade, children's right to participation in the child protection system has received considerable professional and researcher attention. Child protection workers (CPW) are key in facilitating children's participation in this system. Nevertheless, studies consistently show they find it difficult to implement the right to participation in their practice.

Intergenerational Transmission of Posttraumatic Orientation to Bodily Signals Following Child Maltreatment.

Recent studies have indicated that CM (child maltreatment) may influence individuals' perception of their bodies, often resulting in a posttraumatic orientation to bodily signals (OBS). Given the intricate relationship between bodily and interpersonal experiences, it is hypothesized that posttraumatic OBS may be intergenerationally transmitted. However, knowledge regarding this phenomenon, and its underlying mechanisms, remains limited.

On the Links Between Exposure to Traumatic Events in Religious Contexts, Post-Traumatic Stress Symptoms, and a Positive Perception of God's Image Among Jewish Lesbians, Gays and Bisexuals in Israel.

This study constitutes one of the first investigations aiming to examine the association between traumatic experiences within religious settings and symptoms of post-traumatic stress among religious lesbians, gays, and bisexuals. Furthermore, the study tested whether the anticipated positive link between those traumatic experiences and post-traumtic stress is influenced by a positive perception of God's image. The sample consisted of 146 Israeli Jewish lesbians, gays, and bisexuals who professed a belief in God or demonstrated religious inclinations either presently or in the past.

"No one wants you back, you will stay here forever": Exploring the story of the Israeli children who were held in captivity by Hamas.

Background: Recent armed conflicts around the world have highlighted that child abduction and hostage-taking are pervasive, and of high concern for child rights, child development, and well-being. Little research exists on child hostages in specific conflict contexts.

Objective: This study was designed to examine child hostage stories conveyed by the Israeli children who were released from captivity in Gaza, post the October 7, 2023, Hamas-led attack on Israel.

"I remember most of my family seeing it": The presence of others during child physical abuse, as conveyed in forensic interviews with Israeli children.

Child physical abuse is often perceived as a crime perpetrated within the family and out of sight. However, recent studies have indicated the presence of others during incidents of physical abuse. The current study was designed to examine the experiences and perceptions of children who were physically abused in their families concerning the presence of others, as conveyed during their forensic interviews.

The Richness of Reports Provided by Children in Israel: Examination of the Impact of Social Affiliations.

Forensic interviews following child sexual abuse (CSA) are of central importance to the children, their families and all those involved. Moreover, the legal system expects rich, forensically relevant reports from the children. The current study focuses on the impact of children's social affiliation on the richness of their reports, and how question types contribute to rich reports.

"Beyond the letter of the law": A critical discourse analysis of social rights take-up in social work.

Social work is considered a human rights-based profession. One of the major domains wherein social workers advance human rights involves carrying out actions directed at ensuring the realization of social rights of underprivileged service users. However, empirical knowledge about the actual everyday practice of social rights take-up in social work contexts is still scarce.

Reproductive healthcare utilization for women in the sex trade: a qualitative study.

Background: Women in the sex trade encounter significant challenges in obtaining reproductive healthcare. Reports of reproductive healthcare for women in the sex trade center on the prevention and termination of pregnancies, yet most women in the sex trade globally experience full term pregnancies and bear children. This study aimed to explore barriers and enabling factors to providing reproductive healthcare for women in the sex trade in Israel.

Exploring the experiences of English-speaking women who have moved to Israel and subsequently used Israeli fertility treatment services: A qualitative study.

Background: Israel's pronatalist cultures result in a social expectation to have children and drive Israel's fertility rate of 2.9. Israeli policy reflects this through funding unlimited fertility treatment up to two children.

Nurses during war: Profiles-based risk and protective factors.

Introduction: Nurses in southern Israel's public hospitals were exposed to unusual traumatic events following the October 7, 2023, Hamas attack on Israel, and the ensuing Swords of Iron War. This study aimed to clarify the complexity of wartime nursing by identifying profiles based on risk factors (i.e.