Ecological Approach to Academic Achievement in the Face of War and Military Violence: Mediating and Moderating Role of School, Family, and Child Characteristics

Abstract

Based on the ecological-transactional model by Bronfenbrenner, this study tested the mediating roles of school, family, and child characteristics between academic achievement and both traumatic war experiences and stressful life events. It further examined which of these characteristics could protect academic achievement from negative trauma impacts. Participants were 303 Palestinian children (51.2% girls; age, M = 10.94 ± .50 years) and their parents. Standard tests measured children’s language and math achievements. Children reported on motivational beliefs, learning, and coping strategies; teachers’ practices and peer relationships; sibling relationships and parents’ scholastic involvement; and war trauma and stressful life events. Results showed that parental scholastic involvement and children’s motivation and learning strategies mediated between war trauma and academic achievement, whereas teachers’ practices, siblingship, and children’s motivation and learning strategies mediated the impacts of stressful life events on achievement. Good peer relationships and, marginally, parental scholastic encouragement functioned as protective factors for children’s academic achievement in war conditions.