Contrasting portraits of life: Psychological distress in children living under occupation in Palestine

Abstract

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the different levels of psychological distress and depressive symptoms among Palestinian children living in refugee camps who attend public schools and children living in the city of Ramallah who attend a private school. The sample comprised of 60 students ages 11-14. This quantitative study aimed at explaining whether or not age, gender, and parental level of education play a role in the level of psychological distress experience by the participants. A standardized English and Arabic version of the Youth Self-Report Scale (Achenbach & Rescorla, 2001) was used to measure psychological adjustment. A correlation analysis was used in order to assess the capacity of independent variables (gender, age, parental level of education) to predict the dependent variable of psychological distress. A t-test analysis was conducted to assess whether there are differences in levels of psychological distress of children attending private verses the schools of the refugee camps. Results show that participants who attended the private school appeared to have higher levels of psychological distress than participants who attended the public school.