New Article: Winstok, Effects of Childhood Experience of Violence on Young Israeli Adults’ Global Self-Esteem

Winstok, Zeev. “Effects of Childhood Experience of Violence Between Parents and/or Parent-to-Child Violence on Young Israeli Adults’ Global Self-Esteem.” Violence and Victims 30.4 (2015): 699-713.

 

URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1891/0886-6708.VV-D-13-00126

Abstract
The study examines long-term effects of family violence in childhood (violence between parents and/or parent-to-child violence) on adult self-esteem. Data were derived from a sample of 352 university students. Findings show that young adults not exposed to family violence in childhood report the highest self-esteem; lower self-esteem reports were by those experiencing one type of family violence; the lowest self-esteem was reported by those who experienced two types of family violence. In the latter two groups, self-esteem was also affected by frequency of violence. A linkage was identified between the family violence types examined: The more frequent one type of violence, the more frequent the other type. Theoretical and practical implications for the study of effects of family violence on child development are discussed.

 

New Article: Enosh et al, Attitudes Toward Domestic Violence Among FSU Immigrants

Enosh, Guy, Elazar Leshem, and Eli Buchbinder. “Attitudes Toward Domestic Violence and Corporal Punishment Among Former Soviet Union Immigrants in Israel.” Violence Against Women (early view; online first).

 

URL:http://dx.doi.org/10.1177/1077801215623382

 

Abstract

The study regards attitudes of Russian immigrants in Israel toward wife abuse and corporal punishment. The sample consisted of 1,028 participants, based on a multistage cluster sampling. The study used a questionnaire related to immigration, acculturation, and attitudinal issues. The findings indicate a dual-causal model, in which corporal punishment attitudes contribute to wife abuse attitudes and vice versa. However, the effect of attitudes supporting corporal punishment was stronger than the effect of wife abuse attitudes, indicating that the attitudinal system as a precursor of violent behavior is already merging the two types of violence.

 

 

 

New Article: Haj-Yahia & Zaatut, Beliefs of Palestinian Women About the Responsibility and Punishment of Violent Husbands

Haj-Yahia, Muhammad M., and Amarat Zaatut. “Beliefs of Palestinian Women From Israel About the Responsibility and Punishment of Violent Husbands and About Helping Battered Women.” Journal of Interpersonal Violence (early view; online first).

 

URL: https://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0886260515608802

 

Abstract

This article presents a study that examined beliefs about violent husbands and about helping battered women among Palestinian women living in Israel from the perspective of patriarchal ideology. A convenience sample of 701 married women was obtained, and a self-report questionnaire was administered. The findings reveal that the majority of participants held violent husbands accountable for their behavior; however, the majority of them did not support punishing violent husbands through formal agencies (i.e., the police) or through informal social institutions (i.e., the family). In addition, contrary to expectations, the majority of women perceived wife beating as a social problem rather than as a private one that should be dealt with within the family. Regression and multiple regression analysis revealed that women’s endorsement of patriarchal ideology was found to influence all three above-mentioned beliefs about violent husbands and battered women, over and above the amount of variance in each of these beliefs that could be attributed to the women’s sociodemographic characteristics. The limitations of the study and its implications for future research are discussed.

 

 

New Article: Buchbinder & Karayanni, Arab Battered Women Coping with Stigmatization

Buchbinder, Eli, and Nisreen George Karayanni. “Rejection and Choice: Arab Battered Women Coping with Stigmatization After Leaving Battered Women’s Shelters in Israel.” Journal of Ethnic & Cultural Diversity in Social Work 24.3 (2015): 235-50.

 

URL: https://dx.doi.org/10.1080/15313204.2014.991981

 

Abstract
In the collectivist Arab society, intimate partner violence (IPV) is considered to be a personal and a family problem. Arab women who seek refuge in shelters for battered women are perceived as violating a cultural norm. This study focused on how Arab women cope with living independently in the community after spending time in a shelter. In this qualitative study, 12 women between the ages of 25 and 42 were interviewed, after having spent six to 30 months in the shelter. Since then, they had been living in the community. Analysis of the interviews revealed that the women described their independent lives as positioned between two poles: On one pole, they experienced stress and rejection from the family and society, which caused them pain, anger, and loneliness. On the other pole, the women experienced strength that enabled them to find meaning in their right to choose. The discussion of the study findings focuses on the dialectical relationships between the social stigma of rejection and the women’s self-transformation toward an empowered identity in the context of a collectivist-patriarchal community.

 

 

New Article: Eisikovits et al, The Social Construction of Disclosure: The Case of Child Abuse in Israeli Society

Eisikovits, Zvi, Jonathan Davidov, Laura Sigad, and Rachel Lev-Wiesel. “The Social Construction of Disclosure: The Case of Child Abuse in Israeli Society.” In Mandatory Reporting Laws and the Identification of Severe Child Abuse and Neglect (ed. Ben Mathews and Donald C. Bross; Dordrecht and New York: Springer, 2015), 395-413.

 

URL: http://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-94-017-9685-9_19

 

Abstract

Based on 40 in-depth qualitative interviews with professionals, including law-enforcement personnel, educators, and mental health and health-care professionals, this chapter presents a study that describes and analyzes an insider’s view of the ways in which child abuse professionals perceive and understand the disclosure of violence. We found that disclosure is a function of social processes related to the values, ideologies, ways of thinking, and interests of the various social agents involved in the process. Thus, disclosure is not an objective fact-finding process and the subsequent assignment of visibility and proper societal reaction, but rather a social construction.

New Article: Shechory-Bitton and Ben-David, Intergenerational Differences in Parenting Styles of Mother–Daughter Dyads among Immigrants and Native-Born Israelis

Shechory-Bitton, Mally and Sarah Ben-David. “Intergenerational Differences in Parenting Styles of Mother–Daughter Dyads among Immigrants and Native-Born Israelis.” Journal of Cross-Cultural Psychology 45.9 (2014): 1453-70.

 

URL: http://jcc.sagepub.com/content/45/9/1453

 

Abstract

The study examined and compared intergenerational differences in parenting styles, attitudes toward child-rearing, and corporal punishment (CP) in three groups of mother–daughter dyads in Israel: immigrants from Ethiopia and from the Former Soviet Union (FSU) and native-born Israelis. Results show that ethnicity, mothers’ parenting styles, and mothers’ attitudes toward CP significantly explain 21% to 26% of the variance in daughters’ parenting styles. However, the results also indicate the differential effect on parenting style of exposure to a culture other than the culture of origin. This is also reflected in the fact that the younger generation, especially among immigrants from Ethiopia, is more affected by the encounter with the host society than is the older generation.