The Effect of Chronic Traumatic Experience on Palestinian Children in the Gaza Strip

Abstract In this research, two studies were conducted in order to examine the psychological, social, somatic and educational effects of chronic traumatic experience on Palestinian children over the six years of the Al-Aqsa Intifada (2000-2006). Firstly, a quantitative study was conducted which aimed to explore the long-term effects of war and occupation on the Palestinian children in the Gaza Strip. The sample consisted of 1,137 children aged between ten and 18 years randomly selected from all parts of the Gaza Strip to participate in the study. The participants completed a Checklist of Traumatic Experiences (CTE), a Symptoms of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Scale (SPTSDS), a Network of Psycho-Social Support (NPSS) and a Personality Assessment Questionnaire (PAQ). This study found that every child in Palestine is likely to have been exposed to at least three traumatic events. Importantly, this study also found that 41% of the participants suffered from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorders (PTSD). This indicates that there are potentially more than 300,000 children in the Gaza Strip in need of psychological, social,and medical services in the areas of rehabilitation and therapeutic treatment. The study revealed that the support of family, friends, relatives, teachers, and spiritual leaders can be of great help. In addition to this, positive traits of personality can reduce the effects of PTSD. Secondly, a qualitative study aimed to explore, in more depth, the moderating factors relating to Palestinian children who have been exposed to chronic traumatic experiences, particularly the children who show low levels of PTSD. The sample consisted of six children interviewed in Arabic by using a semi-structured interview. They were aged between 13-18 years. The participants were selected according to the amount of traumatic events and level of PTSD experienced by the children who took part in the first study. This study found that the moderating factors and levels of influence which protected them from developing PTSD are positive personality traits and ideological commitment, psychosocial support, entertainment and adaptation or acclimatization. This research concluded that having a normal childhood in Palestine is unlikely in the current circumstances and the future psychological well-being of Palestinian children is at risk of being compromised by on-going traumatic experiences

Synergistic anticancer effect of combination treatment of vitamin D and pitavastatin on the HCC1937 breast cancer cells

Vitamin D (Vit D) has anticancer properties including activating cell senescence inhibiting cancer cell proliferation, inducing apoptotic cell death, and decreasing cancer cell migration. On the other hand, statins showed favorable anticancer activities including anti-survival, anti-proliferation, and anti-migration effects. The current study aimed to investigate the synergistic anticancer effect of Vit D and statins against HCC1937 triple-negative breast cancer cells. The antiproliferative effect was tested by MTT assay after 48 hours of the treatments. Trypan blue test and clonogenic assay were used to test the anti-survival activities of the treatments. The ability of the treatments to inhibit the migration ability was tested by scratch assay. Levels of the cell cycle and apoptotic markers were determined by western blotting. Results of the study revealed that all the tested compounds including Vit D, atorvastatin (Ator), simvastatin (Simv), and pitavastatin (Pita) inhibited HCC1937 breast cancer cell growth with different IC50 values ranging from 4.49-12.95 µM. Combined application of Pita and Vit D showed potent synergistic antiproliferative activities against HCC1937 breast cancer cells. The combined therapy of (1µM Vit D and 2 µM Pita) inhibited HCC1937 cell proliferation by cell cycle arrest and apoptosis as evidenced by increasing p21, p53, and cleaved PARP. Finally, the combined treatment decreased the p-STAT3 level in HCC1937 breast cancer cells. The results of the study can be concluded that the combined treatment of Pita and Vit D has a synergistic anticancer effect against HCC1937 breast cancer cells

Impact of chronic war trauma exposure on PTSD diagnosis from 2006 -2021: a longitudinal study in Palestine

© Crown 2023. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.Background: Trauma and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorders (PTSD) are a common result of the occurrence of natural and man-made disasters, the refugees are one of these traumas in which some resulted from political conflicts. Today, Palestinians are the largest refugee population in the world after the Nakba in 1948. This study aims to discover the impact of chronic war traumas on PTSD diagnosis and symptoms from 2006 to 2021. The current study is a follow-up of 607 adolescents and adults, aged between 10–30 years of which are also those children who participated in the 2006 study. This research used an adapted PTSD scale (PTSD-SRII, 33 items) from a validated original questionnaire developed by Altawil in 2008 to measure PTSD based on symptoms reported in DSM-IV and ICD-10. Results: The main findings show at least 97.2% of participants had experienced at least 6 traumatic experiences up to the year 2006 and 100% of the participants were exposed to traumas in 2021. This study found four categories of responses to chronic war trauma: (a) Acute group (n = 321, 52.9%) shows high PTSD symptoms in 2006 and in 2021; (b) Remitters group (n = 54, 8.9%) shows high PTSD symptoms in 2006 but did not show significant PTSD symptoms in 2021; (c) Delayed group (n = 204, 33.6%) shows no PTSD symptoms in 2006 but showed significant PTSD symptoms in 2021; (d) Resilient group (n = 28, 4.6%) had no PTSD symptoms in 2006 and did not show PTSD symptoms in 2021. Conclusions: The authors conclude that Palestinian children, youth, adults and their families in the Gaza Strip are continually at a huge risk of developing PTSD and other psychological problems. This means that Palestinians will suffer for a long time from PTSD, which should be called Chronic Traumatic Stress Disorder (CTSD) rather than PTSD. This PTSD or CTSD cannot be changed unless the root of the problem is solved by ending the 74 years of living under occupation.Peer reviewe

Impact of chronic war trauma exposure on PTSD diagnosis from 2006 -2021 : a longitudinal study in Palestine

© Crown 2023. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0. To view a copy of this licence, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.Background: Trauma and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorders (PTSD) are a common result of the occurrence of natural and man-made disasters, the refugees are one of these traumas in which some resulted from political conflicts. Today, Palestinians are the largest refugee population in the world after the Nakba in 1948. This study aims to discover the impact of chronic war traumas on PTSD diagnosis and symptoms from 2006 to 2021. The current study is a follow-up of 607 adolescents and adults, aged between 10–30 years of which are also those children who participated in the 2006 study. This research used an adapted PTSD scale (PTSD-SRII, 33 items) from a validated original questionnaire developed by Altawil in 2008 to measure PTSD based on symptoms reported in DSM-IV and ICD-10. Results: The main findings show at least 97.2% of participants had experienced at least 6 traumatic experiences up to the year 2006 and 100% of the participants were exposed to traumas in 2021. This study found four categories of responses to chronic war trauma: (a) Acute group (n = 321, 52.9%) shows high PTSD symptoms in 2006 and in 2021; (b) Remitters group (n = 54, 8.9%) shows high PTSD symptoms in 2006 but did not show significant PTSD symptoms in 2021; (c) Delayed group (n = 204, 33.6%) shows no PTSD symptoms in 2006 but showed significant PTSD symptoms in 2021; (d) Resilient group (n = 28, 4.6%) had no PTSD symptoms in 2006 and did not show PTSD symptoms in 2021. Conclusions: The authors conclude that Palestinian children, youth, adults and their families in the Gaza Strip are continually at a huge risk of developing PTSD and other psychological problems. This means that Palestinians will suffer for a long time from PTSD, which should be called Chronic Traumatic Stress Disorder (CTSD) rather than PTSD. This PTSD or CTSD cannot be changed unless the root of the problem is solved by ending the 74 years of living under occupation.Peer reviewe

Do cross-national and ethnic group bullying comparisons represent reality? Testing instruments for structural equivalence and structural isomorphism

Bullying in schools is a widespread phenomenon, witnessed worldwide, with negative consequences for victims and perpetrators. Although it is an international issue, there are several issues with cross-national and cross-cultural/ethnic research that can make comparisons between countries and cultures/ethnic groups difficult including language, cultural perception, and/or methodological issues. As statistical techniques rapidly develop, there may be more scope to be statistically creative in how we assess the utility of one tool across different groups such as cultures, nations, etc. At the very least, an attempt to do this should be paramount in studies investigating different groups (e.g., from different countries) at one time. This study investigated bullying and victimization rates in a large cross-ethnic and -country comparison between adolescents from four countries and five different ethnic groups including: Israel (Jewish Israelis and Arab Palestinian Israelis), Palestine (the Gaza Strip), Germany, and Greece. A total of 3,186 school children aged 12–15 years completed self-report questionnaires of peer bullying/victimization. A stepwise data analytic approach was used to test comparability of the psychometric properties: (1) Structural equivalence contributes to the valid use of the instrument in cultural contexts other than the one for which the instrument has been developed. Structural equivalence is a necessary condition for the justification of indirect or direct comparisons between cultural groups. (2) Additionally, structural isomorphism is necessary to demonstrate that the same internal structure of the instrument applies to the cultural and individual levels. Findings support the internal structural equivalence of the questionnaire with the exception of the Palestinian sample from the Gaza Strip. Subsequently, exploratory factor analysis on the cultural level structure revealed a one-factor structure with congruence measure below 0.85. Thus, no evidence was found for internal structural isomorphism suggesting that no direct comparisons of cultural samples was justified. These results are discussed in detail and the implications for the international research community and cross-national/-ethnic comparison studies in bullying are addressed

Proceedings of First Conference for Engineering Sciences and Technology: Vol. 1

This volume contains contributed articles of Track 1, Track 2 & Track 3, presented in the conference CEST-2018, organized by Faculty of Engineering Garaboulli, and Faculty of Engineering, Al-khoms, Elmergib University (Libya) on 25-27 September 2018. Track 1: Communication and Information Technology Track 2: Electrical and Electronics Engineering Track 3: Oil and Chemical Engineering Other articles of Track 4, 5 & 6 have been published in volume 2 of the proceedings at this lin