The Relationship between Palestinian Parents' Exposure to Prolonged and Cumulative Political Violence, Their Parenting Styles, and Parents' and Adolescent Children's Post-Traumatic Stress Symptoms

Background and purpose: The mental health consequences of living in war zones and exposure to political violence have been investigated extensively over the past six decades. However, there is a dearth of research on the transmission of psychological consequences of Palestinian parents’ exposure to chronic, cumulative, and prolonged political violence to their children. There is also a lack of research on parenting styles that may buffer or that may heighten the damaging psychological consequences of exposure to political violence (EPV).

Method: Self-administered questionnaires were administered to a random systematic cluster sample of 2,934 Palestinian dyads of adolescents (Age range = 14-19, Mean age = 16.11, SD = 0.98; 57.4% girls) and their parents (Mean of age = 43.77 years; SD = 6.96, 56.6% fathers). Using Haj-Yahia’s (2005) Exposure to Political Violence Scale (EPVS), parents reported on their EPV during the following periods: (1) from late September 2000 to the day of filling-out the questionnaire in 2014); (2) from to September 2000; and (3) from the June 1967 Six-Day war until September 1993).

Results: Parents’ EPV during each of the three above-mentioned periods was positively and significantly related to their DIST as measured by Brief Symptoms Inventory and PTSS as measured by Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder Inventory. More specifically, the results revealed that the higher the parents’ EPV the higher their PTSS and DIST. Significant positive relationships were also found between these symptoms among parents and PTSS among the adolescents.

We performed a PROCESS mediation analysis, using SPSS 21 (PROCESS-Model #4), which tested the role of the parental mental health outcomes (parents' PTSS and DIST) and parenting styles as assessed by Parental Behavior Inventory Scale (intimacy and love; rejection and hostility; and strict discipline) as potential mediators in explaining the association between parents' EPV (last year and past years) and adolescents' PTSS. Adolescents' age, gender, and family socio-economic status were held as covariates. The results showed that parents' PTSS and DIST as well as Strict Discipline serve as mediating factors on the association between parents' EPV in the last year and in past years. Parental rejection and hostility serves as a mediating variable for the association between parents' EPV and adolescents' PTSS. We conducted a moderation analysis using PROCESS (Model #5) that showed that positive parenting style (e.g. parental intimacy and love) does not moderate the mediated association between parents' EPV, parent's mental health outcomes and adolescents' PTSS.

Conclusions and implications: The results indicate that EPV of parents is related both to their own PTSS and to that of their children. Rejecting and hostile parenting styles and strict discipline by the parents appear to exacerbate these effects while love and intimacy have no effects. We discuss the implications of these results for intervention with parents and children who have undergone prolonged EPV.