The impact of political violence on moral reasoning in children

Social-cognitive mechanisms in the cycle of violence: Cognitive and affective theory of mind, and externalizing psychopathology in children and adolescents

Children who are victims of interpersonal violence have a markedly elevated risk of engaging in aggressive behavior and perpetrating violence in adolescence and adulthood. Although alterations in social information processing have long been understood as a core mechanism underlying the link between violence exposure and externalizing behavior, scant research has examined more basic social cognition abilities that might underlie this association. To that end, this study examined the associations of interpersonal violence exposure with cognitive and affective theory of mind (ToM), core social-cognitive processes that underlie many aspects of social information processing. In addition, we evaluated whether difficulties with ToM were associated with externalizing psychopathology. Data were collected in a community-based sample of 246 children and adolescents aged 8-16 who had a high concentration of exposure to interpersonal violence. Violence exposure was associated with lower accuracy during cognitive and affective ToM, and the associations persisted after adjusting for co-occurring forms of adversity characterized by deprivation, including poverty and emotional neglect. Poor ToM performance, in turn, was associated with externalizing behaviors. These findings shed light on novel pathways that increase risk for aggression in children who have experienced violence.

Judgment of land ownership by young refugee Palestinian and U.S. children

Children’s sense and reasoning about territory and land ownership may develop differently in contexts of poverty and where narratives of dispossession are a part of daily life and are of political and historical significance, as is the case in the Palestinian refugee context in Lebanon. In this study we looked at how 3- and 5-year-old refugee Palestinian and American children distribute land among neighbors disputing over an unoccupied piece of land separating their properties. Children were required to make distributive justice decisions about 4 scripted scenarios that involved a pretend conflict between different types of neighbors (rich/poor; ingroup vs. outgroup; neighbors of the same material wealth and neighbors that were either poor or rich as well as ingroup members). Both 5-year-old Palestinian and American children showed inequality aversion, favoring the poor neighbor over the rich in their distributive justice decisions. This first finding suggests that being born into poverty does not make young children more sensitive to material inequity, even if the object of dispute is of particular cultural relevance. However, a second main finding suggests that extreme circumstances potentially translate into enhanced ingroup partialities, above and beyond the universal normative trend toward inequity aversion.

[How does collective violence shape the health status of its victims? Conceptual model and design of the ISAVIC study]

OBJECTIVES

Epidemiologic research on collective violence (violence exerted by and within groups in pursuit of political, social or economic goals) is very scarce despite its growing recognition as a major public health issue. This paper describes the conceptual model and design of one of the first research studies conducted in Spain aiming to assess the impact of collective violence in the health status of its victims (study known as ISAVIC, based on its Spanish title Impacto en la SAlud de la VIolencia Colectiva).

METHODS

Starting with a comprehensive but non-systematic review of the literature, the authors describe the sequelae likely produced by collective violence and propose a conceptual model to explain the nature of the relationships between collective violence and health status. The conceptual model informed the ISAVIC study design and its measurement instruments.

RESULTS

The possible sequelae of collective violence, in the physical, emotional and social dimensions of health, are described. Also, the review distinguishes the likely impact in primary and secondary victims, as well as the interplay with the social environment. The mixed methodological design of the ISAVIC study supports the coherence of the conceptual model described.

CONCLUSIONS

The ISAVIC study suggests that collective violence may affect the main dimensions of the health status of its victims, in intimate relation to the societal factors where it operates. It is necessary to validate these results with new studies.

Palestinian youth of the Intifada: PTSD and future orientation

OBJECTIVE

To assess the nature of chronic exposure to terror and its psychological and cognitive toll on Palestinian youths, as is reflected in posttraumatic symptoms, future orientation, and attitudes toward peace.

METHOD

In the summer of 2001, 245 Palestinian and 300 Israeli-Palestinian adolescents in the sixth to ninth grades were assessed with self-report questionnaires that measured level of exposure to terror, posttraumatic stress disorder, anxiety, depression, anger, dissociation, future orientation, and attitudes toward peace.

RESULTS

Palestinians experienced significantly more traumatic events than Israeli Palestinians; the groups did not differ, however, in their subjective perception of the threat. Palestinians also reported higher levels of posttraumatic symptoms, more pessimistic future orientation, and less favorable attitudes toward peace negotiations than the Israeli Palestinians. The groups did not differ in reported psychological symptoms related to chronic exposure to stress. In both groups, subjective perceptions of the threat were implicated in the pathogenic sequelae of exposure to terror-induced trauma.

CONCLUSIONS

Chronic or repeated exposure to terror may be related to complex posttraumatic symptoms beyond those specified in DSM-IV or ICD-10, including negative personal and national future orientation. The role of subjective appraisal deserves professional attention.

Child abuse: current problems and key public health challenges

Child abuse has recently been recognized by the World Health Organization as a major worldwide health problem impairing the health and welfare of children and adolescents. This paper attempts to look at child abuse from a public health perspective taking into account the vast cultural diversity in which children and adolescents live focusing on the issue of abuse and violence in a broad public health perspective, and trying to highlight the need for greater attention to be given to possible country-specific interventions.