Emotion understanding, pictorial representations of friendship and reciprocity in school-aged children

This study examined the relationship between emotional understanding, friendship representation and reciprocity in school-aged children. Two hundred and fifty-one Caucasian 6-year-old children (111 males and 140 females) took part in the study. The Test of Emotion Comprehension (TEC) and the Pictorial Assessment of Interpersonal Relationships (PAIR) were used. Children having a reciprocal friendship and children having a unilateral friendship with a child named as their "best friend" were compared on the emotional understanding task and on their pictorial representations of friendship. Multilevel analyses indicated that friendship status effects were not influenced by classroom-level differences. Results showed that children with reciprocal friendships drew themselves as more similar to and more cohesive with their best friends, and they showed better understanding of emotions, than children having a unilateral friendship. Finally, the implications of these findings for theoretical and empirical research development on friendship are discussed.

Are children’s views of the ‘‘enemy’’ shaped by a highly-publicized negative event?

In the beginning of the first decade of this century, some highly-publicized extremistic acts of terror occurred. A hostage tragedy in a school in Beslan (North Ossetia) was followed in the Netherlands by the brutal murder of the controversial Dutch filmmaker and newspaper columnist Theo van Gogh, bomb attacks in Bali and Madrid and other acts of terrorism between 2002 and 2005. The aim of the present study was to examine whether these events have resulted in the emergence of a collective enemy in the Netherlands, and whether this is reflected by the enemy images and understanding of enemy with Dutch children and adolescents aged 7—13. For this purpose, information about children and adolescents’ enemy images and understanding of enemy prior to (i.e., 2000 and 2002) and following these events was compared. In the pre- and post-studies, the participants were presented with a free-association and drawing task, as well as a short questionnaire. The findings revealed considerable shifts in the way children thought about and drew enemies. Whereas prior to these events an enemy with Dutch children and adolescents was an abstract, undefined entity, it now obtained more definition and a concrete reality, albeit without any specification of the identity of the enemy nor as being part of a collective enemy.

Israeli youth in the Second Intifada: PTSD and future orientation

OBJECTIVE

To examine the relationship between exposure to political violence and posttraumatic symptoms, future orientation, and attitudes toward peace.

METHOD

A total of 740 boys and girls aged 11.5-15 years from Jerusalem, Gilo, and the Jewish settlements in the disputed territories were assessed in the summer of 2001 using an exposure to terror questionnaire, Child Posttraumatic Stress Reaction Index, Children's Future Orientation Scale, and a question regarding the future of peace talks.

RESULTS

A substantially higher percentage of youths in the settlements (27.6%) than in Jerusalem (12.4%) or Gilo (11.2%) reported moderate to very severe levels of posttraumatic symptoms. Children's Future Orientation responses were moderately optimistic. About two thirds of the adolescents in the settlements rejected the idea of peace talks at any time, whereas around half of the youths in Jerusalem and Gilo supported the continuation of peace talks. Exposure was related to both PTSD symptoms and attitudes toward peace but not to future orientation.

CONCLUSIONS

Our findings present the complex interrelationship of political violence, posttraumatic stress disorder, and attitudes toward peace and raise the need for a combined mental health and peace education intervention to prevent the often overlooked vicious cycle of violence and traumatization.

Palestinian youth of the Intifada: PTSD and future orientation

OBJECTIVE

To assess the nature of chronic exposure to terror and its psychological and cognitive toll on Palestinian youths, as is reflected in posttraumatic symptoms, future orientation, and attitudes toward peace.

METHOD

In the summer of 2001, 245 Palestinian and 300 Israeli-Palestinian adolescents in the sixth to ninth grades were assessed with self-report questionnaires that measured level of exposure to terror, posttraumatic stress disorder, anxiety, depression, anger, dissociation, future orientation, and attitudes toward peace.

RESULTS

Palestinians experienced significantly more traumatic events than Israeli Palestinians; the groups did not differ, however, in their subjective perception of the threat. Palestinians also reported higher levels of posttraumatic symptoms, more pessimistic future orientation, and less favorable attitudes toward peace negotiations than the Israeli Palestinians. The groups did not differ in reported psychological symptoms related to chronic exposure to stress. In both groups, subjective perceptions of the threat were implicated in the pathogenic sequelae of exposure to terror-induced trauma.

CONCLUSIONS

Chronic or repeated exposure to terror may be related to complex posttraumatic symptoms beyond those specified in DSM-IV or ICD-10, including negative personal and national future orientation. The role of subjective appraisal deserves professional attention.

The development of enemy images in Dutch children: Measurement and initial findings

While there is ample evidence that enemies and enemy images are prerequisites in preparedness for war, little information is available about children's understanding of enemies or the presence of enemy images. Based on a pilot study in which assessment instruments were developed and validated, the present study examined the understanding of enemies and the presence of enemy images in 221 Dutch children aged between 7 and 12 years. The instruments employed involved the request to draw an enemy and an individual interview. Contrary to the expectation that younger children's enemy images would consist primarily of fictitious, non-human figures, whereas older children's images would focus more on realistic others as enemies, the findings revealed an opposite developmental course: younger children perceived enemies more often as concrete others, while older children perceived enemies more often as non-human, fictitious others. In addition, an age-related increase in children's experienced threats that cannot be reduced to concrete external causes was observed. Taken together with a growing awareness that enemies are characterized primarily by internal personality characteristics, latent (undefined) enemy images may easily become concrete enemies when an external focus is provided.