Dimensions of the political environment affecting children's mental health- An Israeli study

This study investigates the effect of three psychopolitical factors on chil dren's psychological adjustment. The three factors are exposure to politica l life events, impact assigned to experienced events, and perception of thr eat. Subjects were 397 Israeli children aged 12-13 sampled from three resid ential areas, which differed along a religious-ideological axis-West Bank s ettlements, the Golan Heights, and greater Tel Aviv. All children responded to a political life events scale, a questionnaire battery assessing threat perception and ideological conviction, and the Brief Symptom Inventory. Re sults for two factors confirm the central hypothesis that the factors will be related linearly to distress, indicating increased distress levels with magnification of perceived impact of political events and perception of thr eat. A secondary hypothesis that ideology mediates the psychopolitical vari ables to distress relation was not confirmed. These results have implicatio ns for comprehension of political environmental dimensions impairing childr en's mental health.