The Proposed study pertains to a three-year effort for a follow-up research on victims of terrorism and their families. This research project will focus on a terrorist attack that involved the seizure of over a hundred hostages, most of them adolescents. The event took place in 1974, in the developmental town of Ma'alot close to the Northern border of Israel. The study is to investigate the psychological and behavioral effects of exposure to a terrorist act during adolescence on the survivors' adult life, as well as on their parents - both as secondary victims as providers of support to their victimized children. The pilot encompasses five specific goals: To the examine the long-term consequences of captivity experience on the physical and mental health of the survivors and of their parents; To study the survivors' long-term social and vocational adjustment; To examine the ex-hostages and their parents' coping modes, and especially the mediating effect of perceived social support on the survivors' long- term adjustment; To examine the mediating effect of the extent of victimization, resulting from the terrorists' assault, on the survivors' long-term adjustment; To study the relationship between the long-term effects of hostage experience and antecedent variables, e.g., individual and family characteristics. In order to ensure that the effects found among the survivors are due specifically to the traumatic experience, a control group is also included, comprised of pair-matched subjects. The study based is on in-depth interviews and supplementary questionnaires administered to the survivors, their parents and the control group. Understanding the specific traumatic effects associated with terrorists acts, involving captivity, is essential for developing appropriate intervention procedures, aimed at minimizing the long-term damages.
| Desivilya, H S; Gal, R; Ayalon, O (1996) Extent of victimization, traumatic stress symptoms, and adjustment of terrorist assault survivors: a long-term follow-up. J Trauma Stress 9:881-9 |
