CHILDRENS RESPONSE TO THE GULF-WAR - ASSESSMENT VIA ORDINAL AND NOMINAL QUANTIFICATION OF COMPOSITIONS

This study reports on 253 Israeli fifth and sixth grade children at ri sk from missile attacks during the Persian Gulf War of 1991. During th e fifth week of the war the children were asked to write, in their cla ssroom, a short composition about their personal experience since the beginning of the war. The major concern of the study was the feasibili ty of employing a school-based, easy-to-administer, assessment tool (i .e. a composition) as both research and clinically oriented assessment procedure. The most noted experiences reported were children's active behavior in the sealed room, the role the mass media played and the a nxiety, respectively. The results tend to concur with major findings o f other studies using conventional measures as well as potentially pro viding some unique information. Overall, the children's compositions m ay have considerable practical value for group-based assessment in com munity disaster situations.