Psychological and Social Adjustment of Russian-Born and Israeli-Born Jewish Adolescents

Abstract

This study compares the social, school, behavioral and psychological functioning of high school students who immigrated from the Commonwealth Independent States (CIS) to that of Israeli-born children whose parents emigrated from the former Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) during the sixties and the seventies. In most areas of life, no significant differences were found between the two groups. The majority of the Israeli-born and immigrant adolescents functioned well in terms of social and educational functioning and tended to avoid involvement in dangerous behavior, such as drug use and delinquency. Concerning psychological functioning, the results pointed to an interesting phenomenon: even though no significant differences were found between the two research groups, the adolescents in both groups expressed higher emotional distress when compared to norms of Israeli adolescents who are not of Russian origin. In addition, the results showed that among the immigrant adolescents, the longer they resided in Israel the more the economic status of their parents improved, their self-esteem rose, the more likely it was that their levels of somatization, paranoia and general emotional stress decreased. At the same time, however, the frequency of alcoholic consumption increased, the longer they lived in Israel. A discussion of the results sums up the article.