The Development of Civic Engagement Among Palestinian and Israeli Adolescents

• In Event: 2-115 - Youth Civic Engagement Across Cultural, Social, and Political Contexts

Integrative Statement

Research has typically focused on how exposure to persistent ethnic-political violence negatively impacts youth outcomes (e.g., aggression, post-traumatic stress; see Barber, 2009; Cummings et al., 2011; Dubow et al., 2012; Masten, 2014), with less emphasis on positive outcomes. We examine civic engagement, which has been cast as a productive youth response to increasing conflict and instability in the world political order (Ehrlich, 2000; Youniss et al., 2002). This study draws from our 4-wave prospective study of Palestinian and Israeli Jewish youth. Beginning in 2007, 900 Palestinian (nationally representative sample from West Bank and Gaza) and 450 Israeli Jewish (oversampling of high-conflict regions) youth and their parents were interviewed annually for 3 waves (equally split across 3 age cohorts, 8, 11, and 14 years). A random sample of 400 Palestinians and 162 Israeli Jews were interviewed again 4 years later (14, 17, and 20 years). Wave 4 civic engagement was assessed by items indicating participation in community problem solving, organized volunteering, and active civic group membership (e.g., Keeter et al., 2003). Predictor variables (averaged across the first three waves of the study) included: exposure to ethnic-political violence and conflict (Slone at al., 1999); exposure to neighborhood, family, and school violence (Attar et al., 1994); parent mental health, positive discipline, and monitoring (Capaldi & Patterson, 1989; Derogatis, 1994; Straus et al., 1989); and youths’ post-traumatic stress symptoms (Pynoos et al., 1987), aggression (Boxer et al., 2013), self-esteem (Rosenberg, 1989), prosocial behavior (Goodman, 1997), and coping (Causey & Dubow, 1992). Concurrent characteristics included the same variables at wave 4, as well as post traumatic growth (Tedeschi & Calhoun, 1996), constructive activity (Fredricks & Eccles, 2006), and willingness to participate in violent political demonstrations.

Israeli Jewish adolescents reported higher overall civic engagement compared to Palestinians in Wave 4. Palestinians were equally split among youth who did not engage in any civic engagement activities (31%), 1 or 2 activities (39%), and more than 2 activities (30%), whereas Israeli Jews were more likely to engage in more civic activities (22%, 25%, and 53%, respectively). Multinomial regression of earlier predictors indicated that for both groups, membership in the high civic engagement group (compared to the low group) was predicted by gender (male for Palestinians and female for Israeli Jews) and higher levels of parents’ education. For Palestinians, it was also characterized by higher exposure to political violence and lower levels of post-traumatic stress symptoms, whereas for Israeli Jews, it was associated with lower exposure to family violence. Multinomial regression of concurrent correlates showed that for both ethnicities, individuals in the high civic engagement group (compared to the low group) reported higher exposure to political violence and willingness to participate in politically violent demonstrations. Further, high civic engagement was associated with post-traumatic growth for Palestinians and more constructive activities for Israeli Jews. We theorize that growing up in contexts of persistent ethnic-political violence might mobilize both constructive and destructive coping responses, leading to civic engagement as well as a willingness to produce change even through violent means.

Authors

• Erika Niwa, Brooklyn College - CUNY
  Presenting Author

• Eric Dubow, Bowling Green State University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Paul Boxer, Rutgers University
  Non-Presenting Author

• L Rowell Huesmann, University of Michigan
  Non-Presenting Author

• Simha Landau, Hebrew University
  Non-Presenting Author

• Khalil Shikaki, Palestine Center for Policy and Survey Research
  Non-Presenting Author

• Catherine Smith, University of Michigan
  Non-Presenting Author