Adolescents Exposed to 7 Years of Political Violence: Differential Relations Between Exposure and Its Impact for Jewish and Arab Israelis

The first aim of this study was to describe exposure to political violence and its assigned impact for Israeli adolescents growing up in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict environment, spanning 7 years of the second Palestinian Intifada (1998–2004). The second aim was to examine ethnic group differences in exposure and impact over this period. Participants were 3800 Jewish and Arab Israeli adolescents, sampled in a cross-sectional design during three exposure periods—antecedent, peak and receding Intifada—who completed a Political Life Events (PLE) questionnaire that yielded objective exposure and subjective impact measures. As expected, for the full sample, PLE exposure peaked at the Intifada peak, but increased exposure was not matched by increased impact. Ethnic group differences were found for both objective exposure and subjective impact and for their pattern across the three Intifada time periods. This ethnic group influence is discussed from a cross-cultural, politico-ideological and developmental perspective.