Impact of political change on the psychological stress process among west bank Palestinian women

Abstract

This article reports the relationships between political change, personal factors and the psychological stress process among 40 West Bank Palestinian women. The women were tested in spring 1982 and in autumn 1985. The stress process assessed consists of exposure to stressful life events, the way that women perceive the severity of stress (worry) and appraise their own resources to cope with it (locus of control), as well as actual coping modes, and mental health problems. The results show that the Palestinian women had more personal and political worries, and showed more personal helplessness (external locus of control) after the Lebanon war in 1985 than in 1982. The results further show that women employed less avoidance and retreat, and less denial as coping modes in 1985 than in 1982. No changes between these years were found in the women's mental health, their locus of control on the Palestinian issue, and coping modes of aggressive action and social-political activity. The results on the roles of personal factors in the stress process show that younger women expressed more political worries and initiative (internal locus of control) on the Palestinian issue. Furthermore, women who had many children had fewer political worries and more personal worries, and were less external in their locus of control on the Palestinian issue than women with few children.