Well‐being and pressures of daily life in two West Bank villages—Exploring context and history

Abstract

Interest in the well-being of people exposed to long-term violence and conflict has tended to focus on measurable effects of acute traumatic events, while attention to the pressures of their daily living context is relatively new. Using qualitative and quantitative data from a 2005 survey of all female family caretakers in 2 neighbouring Israeli-occupied West Bank villages (n = 820), we explored the associations of demographic, health-related and contextual factors with reported pressures and WHO-5 well-being index scores. The final model explained 17.8% of the variance with negative associations between health-related factors ("back-aches," "stomach aches" "psychological illness in the family") and family-related factors ("male head of household aggressive", "male head of household physically violent") and the WHO-5 well-being index scores. We found positive associations between socio-economic factors ("standard of living"; "number of rooms") and village-related factors ("residency in village A/B") and the WHO-5 well-being index score. Exploring the daily living context of villages A and B illuminated how the impact of historical and political events differed, even in villages that are geographically close. The paper lends support to calls for including politics and history in research on well-being in contexts of long-term violence and conflict.

Mental health under occupation: an analysis of the de-politicization of the mental health discourse in Palestine and a call for a human rights approach

“…This bias corroborates with the excessive focus on trauma that characterizes the discourse of mental health in Palestine and which fails to acknowledge that there are many non-trauma related variables that are associated with increased stress, described as daily contextual stressors (Rabaia et al , 2018). A study on Iraqi people displaced in Jordan showed for instance that unmet needs in relation to income, food or health had a stronger connection to mental distress than trauma exposure (WHO - World Health Organization, 2011 in Rabaia et al , 2018). It is also known that many victims demand social assistance and social justice, rather than mental health services (Summerfield, 1995).…”

“…This approach very easily leads to the labelling of social suffering as a disorder and thus to an over-diagnosis of and a pathologizing of Palestinians as mentally ill. At the same time, the fact that Palestinians are suffering from political determinants of health becomes obscured and normal reactions to social injustice are being conflated as disorders (Rabaia et al, 2010). This bias corroborates with the excessive focus on trauma that characterizes the discourse of mental health in Palestine and which fails to acknowledge that there are many non-trauma related variables that are associated with increased stress, described as daily contextual stressors (Rabaia et al, 2018). A study on Iraqi people displaced in Jordan showed for instance that unmet needs in relation to income, food or health had a stronger connection to mental distress than trauma exposure (WHO -World Health Organization, 2011 in Rabaia et al, 2018).…”

Maternal perceptions of father involvement among refugee and disadvantaged families in Beirut, Lebanon

“…The WHO-5 asks participants to rate their subjective psychological well-being (e.g., positive mood, vitality) on a six-point scale (0 = at no time to 5 = all of the time) over the past two weeks (e.g., "I have felt cheerful and in good spirits"). The scale has been used in a study that examined the well-being of female family caretakers in two neighboring Israeli-occupied West Bank villages [34]. A total score was computed by summing all items (Cronbach's α = 0.84).…”

Agency and life satisfaction in Bedouin children exposed to conditions of chronic stress and military violence: A two-wave longitudinal study in Palestine

“…This said, much remains to be learnt about psychological well-being and life satisfaction in child victims of war or about the coping abilities and survival skills that they can potentially display in severely compromised living environments (Linton, Kennedy, Shapiro, & Griffin, 2018; Rabaia, de Jong, Abdullah, Giacaman, & van de Ven, 2018). Although the scientific literature extensively describes the child victims of conflict and violence as highly vulnerable, a growing corpus of studies points up sources of resilience that can be available to these children (Barber, 2013; Halevi, Djalovski, Vengrober, & Feldman, 2016; Veronese & Castiglioni, 2015).…”