Advances in Continuous Traumatic Stress Theory: Traumatogenic Dynamics and Consequences of Intergroup Conflict: The Palestinian Adolescents Case

Ibrahim A. Kira, Jeffrey S. Ashby, Linda Lewandowski, Abdul Wahhab Nasser Alawneh, Jamal Mohanesh, Lydia Odenat

ACCESS Community Health and Research Center, Dearborn, USA.
Arab and Middle East Resource Center, Dearborn, USA.
Center for Cumulative Trauma Studies, Stone Mountain, USA.
Emory University, Atlanta, USA.
Georgia State University, Atlanta, USA.
University of Massachusetts, Amherst, USA.

DOI: 10.4236/psych.2013.44057                

Abstract

The goal of this paper is to advance the theory of chronic and traumatic stressors that have been identified as type III traumas in the trauma developmentally-based framework (DBTF) and use it to investigate the mental and physical health effects of such traumas on impacted individuals and groups. Participants were 438 Palestinian adolescents from the West Bank who had been exposed to a number of types of trauma including chronic intergroup violence. The age of participants in the sample ranged from 12 to 19 with a mean of 15.66 and SD of 1.43. The sample included 54.6% males, 52.3% resided in cities, 44.4% resided in villages, while 3.2% resided in refugee camps. The study utilized a measure for cumulative traumas that is based on the DBTF and measures of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), cumulative trauma related disorders (CTD), depression, anxiety, collective annihilation anxiety (AA), identity salience, and fear of death. The results of partial correlation and path analyses indicated that continuous traumatic stress was a significant predictor of mental health. The analyses also indicated that poverty predicted identity salience and AA that mediated their negative effects on physical and mental health of Palestinian adolescents. The relevance of these results to peace, social and clinical psychology was discussed.

Keywords

DBTF Trauma Framework; Type III trauma; Stress Generation; Stress Proliferation; Collective Annihilation Anxiety

Conflicts of Interest

The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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