Effects of War and Armed Conflict on Adolescents’ Psychopathology and Well-Being: Measuring Political Life Events among Youth

ABSTRACT

Although research on the consequences of war exposure on children’s mental health has made significant progress in the past decades, a lack of valid measures for quantifying the incidence, severity and variability of exposure can hamper identification of at-risk children and mental health delivery in conflict-affected areas. The present study investigated the psychometric properties of a new political life events scale for youth (PLE-Y) that comprehensively assesses personal political violence exposure history. The PLE-Y was administered to 6,254 adolescents aged twelve to eighteen in two large samples in a region in Israel that has been characterized by high exposure to political violence. Adolescents were assessed for political life events exposure, psychiatric symptoms, emotional and behavioral problems, and subjective well-being. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses supported a two-factor structure of the PLE-Y (severe and mild), representing the severity levels of exposure. Results confirmed positive relations between severity of PLE exposure and psychiatric symptoms, emotional and behavioral difficulties, and lower subjective well-being. This study demonstrated the importance of taking into account the personal political violence exposure history and the subjective interpretations of impact of the events to accurately identify the mental health risks to youth who are chronically exposed to protracted political violence.

KEYWORDS:

• War
• political violence
• adolescents
• mental health
• life events

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

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Additional information

Notes on contributors

Michelle Slone

Michelle Slone is Professor of Child Clinical Psychology in the School of Psychological Sciences at Tel Aviv University. She is Director of the Laboratory for the Study of Resilience in Children and a member of the executive council of the Adler Center for Research in Child Development and Psychopathology at Tel Aviv University. She is also former Director of the Child Clinical Graduate Program in the School of Psychological Sciences. Michelle completed her graduate degrees and clinical training in South Africa and her PhD at Tel Aviv University in Israel. She was a Faculty member in the Psychology Department at the University of Cape Town and Project Director of the Developmental Clinics at the Red Cross Children’s Hospital in Cape Town before returning to Israel to a faculty position at Tel Aviv University.

Anat Shoshani

Anat Shoshani is Assistant Professor in the Baruch Ivcher School of Psychology at the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya (IDC) and the academic director of the Maytiv Center for Research and Practice in Positive Psychology.  Her main areas of research are positive psychology, development and study of positive psychology educational interventions for teachers and students, coping with exposure to terrorism and war, resilience of at-risk children, and the contribution of character strengths in promoting happiness, mental health, and subjective wellbeing.