3-099 - Growing Up in the Middle East: Social Development in the Context of Strife

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

Over the past 60 years (if not longer), the Middle East has been roiled by political and ethnic conflict. Children and adolescents growing up in the region have endured – or even have perpetuated –violence and enmities, resulting in familial instability, displacement, economic hardship, and trauma. The aim of this symposium is to focus on these experiences and their consequences for child development. The four papers in this symposium, informed by theory and from a distinguished and international group of scholars, highlight how conditions on the ground interact with developmental processes to influence social development.

The first paper draws on a four-wave longitudinal study of Palestinian youth to describe growth as a function of exposure to ethnic-political violence, conflict and post-traumatic stress symptoms, and individual and contextual protective factors. The second paper examines links between socioeconomic and contextual factors (war-related stress; hopefulness, time as a refugee, socioeconomic status) and domain-specific beliefs about legitimate parental authority, which may be undermined in these situations. The third paper focuses on Iraqi and Syrian refugee youth living in Jordan and examines how stressful war experiences and multiple dimensions of parenting influence adjustment, as moderated by country of origin. The final paper focuses on differences in Palestinian, Palestinian-Israeli, and Israeli-Jewish youths’ evaluations of exclusion based on country of origin and cultural customs versus personal qualities such as physical size and antisociality. These papers contribute to an understanding of how experiences of living with strife in the Middle East affect children’s and adolescents’ social development.

Sub Unit

• Race, Ethnicity, Culture, Context

Chair

• Judith G Smetana, University of Rochester

Individual Presentations

• Predictors of Post-Traumatic Growth among Palestinian Youth - Presenting Author: Eric F Dubow, Bowling Green State Univ; Paul Boxer, Rutgers University; Rowell Huesmann, University of Michigan; Khalil Shikaki, Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research; Catherine Smith, University of Michigan

• Iraqi, Syrian, and Palestinian Refugee Youths’ Beliefs About Legitimate Parental Authority - Presenting Author: Judith G Smetana, University of Rochester; Ikhlas Ahmad, University of Jordan; Laura Wray-Lake, University of Rochester

• The Impact of Collective War Trauma and Parenting Practices on the Adjustment of Syrian and Iraqi Refugee Adolescents - Presenting Author: Ikhlas Ahmad, University of Jordan; Judith G Smetana, University of Rochester; Daniel Gruhn, North Carolina State University

• alestinian, Palestinian-Israeli, and Jewish-Israeli Children’s Evaluations of Scenarios of Peer Exclusion - Presenting Author: Alaina Brenick, University of Connecticut; Melanie A. Killen, University of Maryland, College Park