Mental health and wellbeing of a Palestinian population

This thesis explores how historical, political, and social contextual factors affect the mental health and wellbeing of a Palestinian population under Israeli occupation. The chapters of the dissertation present five separate studies. Following the introduction, chapter two of the dissertation explores children’s drawings and wishes and what these can tell us about Palestinian children’s experiences of growing up in a population exposed to long-term military occupation. Chapter three explores how the lack of human security affects Palestinians’ health and wellbeing in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Chapter four presents a qualitative study of the experiences of children of Palestinian political prisoners, how they cope and how they help other family members to cope with the absence of their father. Chapter five presents a quantitative study exploring the associations between historical, political and contextual factors and wellbeing scores of the population of two villages in the north of the West Bank. Chapter five is a qualitative study, conducted in preparation of a survey on child abuse and neglect in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. It focuses on the problematic issue of including sexual abuse questions in a survey, when an adequate support system is not yet available. All studies were conducted in the context of research projects of the Institute of Community and Public Health of Birzeit University. The thesis also presents reflections on conducting research within this Palestinian research institute in an environment of protracted conflict