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The article examines the associations between political ideology and level of psychological symptoms in youth exposed to terror attacks. The study included 2,999 7th to 10th graders from various parts of Israel. Political ideology was examined in two ways: (a) as a content dimension: political stand—holding right, centrist, or left wing views and (b) as a content-free dimension: ideological commitment—which measured the strength of the political ideology regardless of its content. Findings indicated that youth holding right wing beliefs reported less distress. However, strong ideological commitment was associated with higher levels of symptoms, regardless of the political stand. The discussion concerns the differentiated role of content and content-free dimensions of a political ideology and its implication in psychological distress in the wake of political terror.
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Youth & Society http://yas.sagepub.com Political Ideology and Psychological Symptoms Following Terror Avital Laufer and Zahava Solomon Youth Society 2010; 41; 414 originally published online Apr 23, 2009; DOI: 10.1177/0044118X09333658 The online version of this article can be found at: http://yas.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/41/3/414 Published by: http://www.sagepublications.com Additional services and information for Youth & Society can be found at: Email Alerts: http://yas.sagepub.com/cgi/alerts Subscriptions: http://yas.sagepub.com/subscriptions Reprints: http://www.sagepub.com/journalsReprints.nav Permissions: http://www.sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.nav Citations http://yas.sagepub.com/cgi/content/refs/41/3/414 Downloaded from http://yas.sagepub.com at Information Links on March 25, 2010 Political Ideology and Psychological Symptoms Following Terror Youth & Society Volume 41 Number 3 March 2010 414-433 © 2010 SAGE Publications 10.1177/0044118X09333658 http://yas.sagepub.com hosted at http://online.sagepub.com Avital Laufer Netanya Academic College, Israel Zahava Solomon Tel Aviv University, Israel The article examines the associations between political ideology and level of psychological symptoms in youth exposed to terror attacks. The study included 2,999 7th to 10th graders from various parts of Israel. Political ideology was examined in two ways: (a) as a content dimension: “political stand”—holding right, centrist, or left wing views and (b) as a content-free dimension: “ideological commitment”—which measured the strength of the political ideology regardless of its content. Findings indicated that youth holding right wing beliefs reported less distress. However, strong ideological commitment was associated with higher levels of symptoms, regardless of the political stand. The discussion concerns the differentiated role of content and content-free dimensions of a political ideology and its implication in psychological distress in the wake of political terror. Keywords: terror; youth; psychological symptoms; ideology; political stand E xposure to terror and war, whether directly or indirectly through media reports, may have a variety of psychological consequences for children and adolescents. Particularly salient are posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD), depression and anxiety (e.g., Papageorgiou et al., 2000; Ronen, Rahav, & Rosenbaum, 2003; Thabet, Abed, & Vostanis, 2002; Tulin, Behiye, Osman, Nimet, & Melek, 2003) and a vast array of psychological symptoms of distress as well as health and somatic complaints (Llabre & Hadi, 1994; Slone, Kaminer, & Durrheim, 2000; Vizek-Vidovic, KutervacJagodic, & Arambasic, 2000). Authors’ Note: The study was conducted at the Adler Research Center, Tel Aviv University. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Avital Laufer, School of Behavioral Sciences, Netanya Academic College, 1 Univ