Michelle Slone

Despite the flourishing in recent years in applications of positive psychology in the field of education, there is a paucity of research investigating positive psychology interventions for preschool children. The present study examined the effects of a positive psychology-based intervention conducted in Israel on children's subjective well-being, mental health and learning behaviors. Twelve preschool classrooms of 3-6.5 year-olds were randomly assigned to a positive psychology intervention condition or a wait-list control condition. In the intervention condition, during one school year, 160 children experienced eight modules of basic concepts in positive psychology that were adapted to the developmental characteristics of young children and were compared to 155 children in demographically similar control classrooms. Children were administered a pre-test and post-test of subjective well-being measures. In addition, children's mental health and emotional well-being were measured by parental questionnaires. Preschool teachers completed questionnaires concerning children's learning behaviors. The findings showed significant increases in subjective well-being and positive learning behaviors among the intervention participants, with no significant changes in the control group. The results highlight the potential of positive psychology interventions for increasing subjective well-being and a positive approach to learning at young ages.

This study investigated the role of parenting styles and parental warmth in moderating relations between exposure to political life events and mental health symptoms among 277 adolescents aged 12-14 and their parents living in southern Israel, who had been exposed to protracted periods of war, terrorism and political conflict. Adolescents completed the Political Life Events (PLE) scale, Brief Symptom Inventory and questionnaires regarding parenting style and parental warmth. The primary caregiver completed the Child Behavior Checklist for assessment of the child's internalizing and externalizing symptoms. Results confirmed that severity of PLE exposure was positively correlated with psychological distress and with internalizing and externalizing symptoms. Maternal authoritativeness and warmth functioned as protective factors and had moderating effects on the relation between PLE exposure and mental health symptoms. In contrast, maternal authoritarianism exacerbated the relation between PLE exposure and children's externalizing symptoms. Fathers' parenting style and warmth had no significant relationship with children’s mental health outcomes. These findings have important clinical and practical implications for parental guidance and support during periods of war and armed conflict.

The present review examines the moderating role of ideology on the effects of war, armed conflict, and terrorism on youth. Ideology is an important factor given the central role played by religio-political ideology and nationalism in present-day conflicts. Ideologies or worldviews represent cognitive frameworks that imbue the traumatic situation with meaning and order. Analysis of the pool of studies identified three categories of ideologically based moderating factors, each representing an aspect of social construction of traumatic events, namely, religion, political ideology, and self-concept. The two closely related categories of religion and politico-religious beliefs showed both positive and negative effects on psychological and psychiatric outcomes among youth. The third category of different aspects of self-concept yielded consistently positive moderating effects. The mechanisms by which each category of ideology moderates effects of exposure to war, armed conflict, and terrorism are discussed, and research and clinical implications are presented.

Millions of children have been maimed, displaced, orphaned and killed in modern warfare that targets civilian populations. Several reviews have documented the impact of political trauma on children’s mental health but none has focused specifically on young children (ages 0–6). Since developmental factors influence the young child’s perception and experience of traumatic events, this developmental period is characterized by a unique spectrum of responses to political trauma. This systematic review, comprising 35 studies that included a total of 4365 young children, examined the effects of exposure to war, conflict and terrorism on young children and the influence of parental factors on these effects. Results showed that effects include PTSD and post-traumatic stress symptoms, behavioral and emotional symptoms, sleep problems, disturbed play, and psychosomatic symptoms. Correlations emerged between parental and children’s psychopathology and, additionally, family environment and parental functioning emerged as moderators of the exposure–outcome association for children.

This cross‐sectional study investigated relations between conflict exposure and psychiatric symptoms among 8,727 Jewish Israeli adolescents aged 12–17 years from 1998–2011. This 14‐year span included periods of terrorism, missile attacks, wars, relocations, military operations, and relative quiet, reflecting a dynamically changing, primarily violent climate. Annual samples from the same cities, geographical regions, and schools throughout the country were assessed for personal political life events (PLE) exposure and for psychiatric symptoms using the Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI; Derogatis & Spencer, ). Data were divided into 8 exposure periods: (a) pre‐Intifada 1998–2000, (b) Intifada peak 2001–2003, (c) Intifada recession 2004, (d) evacuation 2005, (e) missiles and the 2006 Lebanon war, (f) peak missiles 2006–2007, (g) Operation Cast Lead 2008–2009, and (h) global terrorism 2010–2011. Results confirmed a relation between type of exposure period, PLE exposure, and psychiatric symptoms. In addition, PLE exposure was positively correlated with psychiatric symptoms (β = .49). A moderating effect of gender on the relationship between PLE exposure and the psychiatric index was found, with elevated symptoms among females (β = .30).

This study evaluates a school-based primary prevention intervention designed to promote adolescents’ coping in the immediate aftermath of war exposure in Operation Cast Lead. Participants were 179 adolescents from two demographically similar schools in Ashkelon in south Israel. The intervention incorporated two previously proven resilience factors—mobilization of support and self-efficacy. In a repeated measures design, the study assessed pre- to post-test changes in intervention (n = 94) and control (n = 85) conditions among adolescents exposed to high or low political life events (PLE). Findings showed significant pre-test differences in self-efficacy and psychological symptoms between participants with low and high PLE. For both PLE groups, the intervention strengthened support mobilization and self-efficacy and reduced psychological distress and emotional symptoms. Findings reinforce the importance of offering appropriate evidence-based interventions for school staff to restore security and well-being to adolescents in a crisis context immediately following war. Despite the apparent return to a school routine after war, school staff should be aware of the risk to youth for development of psychological symptoms and disorders, and the need for preventative intervention.

This study examined the moderating role of self-complexity (SC) on well-being (WB) and psychopathology among Israeli adolescents exposed to the Second Lebanon War (2006). Adolescents (N=584, mean age 16.41) completed a SC measure, Political and Negative Life Events (NLE) scales, Brief Symptom Inventory and Satisfaction with Life Scale. The theoretical model analyzed the function of SC as a moderator of exposure effects to political life events (PLE), while controlling for general NLE. Results corroborated the model with SC moderating the effects of the war-related PLE. Adolescents with low SC are at risk for damaged WB and psychiatric consequences from political violence exposure. This opens a diagnostic avenue for identification of at-risk adolescents in this socio-political context toward whom clinical programs should be directed.

This study examined cross-cultural differences in the moderating function of authoritarian, authoritative, and permissive parenting styles for Jewish and Arab Israeli children exposed to political violence. Respondents were parents and children aged 10–11 from 94 families (42 Arab, 52 Jewish). Parents completed the Parenting Styles and Dimensions Questionnaire and a demographic questionnaire, and children completed the Brief Symptom Inventory, Political Life Events Scale, and Negative Life Events Scale. Political violence exposure and parenting style influenced children’s psychological distress. Mothers’ and fathers’ parenting style moderated effects of political-violence exposure differently for Jewish and Arab children. These findings highlight the need to examine both mothers’ and fathers’ parenting style and ways in which parenting style effects are culturally dependent.