3-042 - Children and Youth Exposed to War Trauma and Violence, and Intervention Strategies

Session Type: Paper Symposium

Integrative Statement

The four studies submitted mainly deal with children and youth who are exposed to war trauma and violence and the development of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) and different related aspects i.e. prevalence and risk factors; and intervention program and coping and resiliency. The first study is a longitudinal study sets to gauge current prevalence and nature of traumatic events and the risk factors of trauma and PTSD after the war in 2012 and last current war 2014 among 11-17 years old children and adolescents from the Gaza Strip while establishing the main reasons for developing PTSD and other associated disorders. The second study investigates the long-term psychosocial of the 2012 war on Gaza Strip on children’s psychological distress. This will look at risk (child characteristics: emotional and behavioral problems) and protective (coping strategies) factors. The third study will look at children's attachment style and how it predicts the effectiveness of a psychosocial intervention (based on the Teaching Recovery Techniques) in alleviating mental health symptoms (PTSD, psychological distress, and depression symptoms) and increasing well-being and how a specific emotion regulation (ER) pattern differently mediate the associations between attachment style and mental health changes in intervention and control groups. The fourth study presents the a specific treatment model for refugee children that are survivors of torture and war trauma.
Together, the four studies provide a conclusive picture and the characteristics of children who are exposed to war trauma and violence and how to deal with it.

Sub Unit

• Developmental Psychopathology

Chair

• Muthanna Samara, Kingston University

Individual Presentations

• A Longitudinal Study on Prevalence and Characteristics of Traumatic Events and PTSD Among Palestinian Children and Adolescents - Presenting Author: Basel El-Khodary, Kingston University; Muthanna Samara, Kingston University

• Coping with War Trauma and Psychological Distress Among School-Age Palestinian Children - Presenting Author: Vivian Khamis, American University of Beirut

• Attachment style and emotion regulation predicting intervention effectiveness among war-affected Palestinian children - Presenting Author: Samir Qouta, Islamic University of Gaza; Marwan Abed Allah Diab, Tampere University of Technology; Esa Palosaari, University of Tampere, Finland; Kirsi Peltonen, University of Tampere; Raija-Leena Punamäki, University of Tampere, Finland

• Rehabilitation for child survivors of torture and war trauma in Jordan - Presenting Author: Ferdinand Garoff, The Centre for Torture Survivors, Finland