Quality of life among residents of Gaza, Palestine: the predictive role of mental distress, fear of COVID-19, and social support.

BACKGROUND: Living under siege and deteriorated health, social, educational, and economic conditions and isolation with scarce opportunities to fulfil basic needs and aspirations affect the civil population's mental health and perceived quality of life. In this cross-sectional investigation, we explored the consequences of mental distress, fear of COVID-19, and social support for QoL in the Gaza strip. METHODS: Nine hundred seventy nine (32.9% males; 67.1% females; mean age was 35.2 years; s.d. = 11.4) adults were recruited in the Gaza strip. We used the Fear for COVID-19 scale (FCS-19), The WHOQOL-BREF Scale, Berlin Social Support Scale (BSSS), Depression Anxiety and Stress Scale (DASS). Pearson correlation coefficient was computed to assess relationships between quality of life, fear of COVID19, mental distress, and social support; a hierarchical regression analysis was used to assess the association between QoL as the dependent variable and demographic variables and fear of COVID19, mental health, and social support as the independent variables. RESULTS: QoL was positively associated with perceived emotion, instrumental, and support seeking. Depression, anxiety, stress, and fear of COVID19 were negatively associated with quality of life. Gender was significantly associated with lower QoL. The study highlighted that the level of fear of COVID-19 was negatively influencing individuals' quality of life (QoL). This fear was negatively associated to psychological distress, gender, place of residence, and family type. Lower-educated and poorer participants had lower QoL scores. Conversely, female gender was notably linked to a lower QOL. The hierarchical regression confirmed that COVID-19 was an added burden for the Palestinian population. The fear of COVID-19 term added a 6.2% variance in QoL. In the final analysis, all predictors were statistically significant, with the fear of COVID-19 term recording a higher contribution of 22.5%, followed by depression term with 21.5%, perceived emotional 18.5%, income at 15.4%, and perceived instruments at 14.8% towards QoL. CONCLUSIONS: Practitioners and policymakers must consider the severe violation of human rights when developing psychosocial programs to intervene in the COVID-19 crisis.

Strength- based approach for building resilience in school children: The case of Gaza / Enfoque basado en la fortaleza para desarrollar la resiliencia en los escolares: El caso de Gaza

This paper seeks to develop a "Strength-based proactive approach for building resilience in school children" under political crisis to be used by counsellors within Gaza schools to advance social and emotional learning programmes that enhance students' resilience and well being. A mixed-methodological approach was used to collect and analyse the data. The qualitative methods included the data collection using literature review, (12) interviews with school principals and psychologists and (12) focus groups with parents, counsellors and teachers. The quantitative method included data collection using (619) students' self-administered questionnaires. The study population consisted of all the students of basic education grades in Gaza city. The study sample was random and consisted of (619) students. Statistical analysis was used to analyse the questionnaire and the content analysis was used to analyse qualitative data. Findings obtained in this study reflected that both qualitative and quantitative methods highlighted similar strength factors that support building resilience among school children in Gaza. They define children's ability to adapt and succeed despite the difficult conditions surrounding them, child positive thinking, providing care, creating a supportive school environment, incorporating resilience topics in curriculum, engaging children in resiliency workshops, building strong relationships between school and family, joining peer groups and building good relationship with neighbours and relatives. In conclusion, this study comes as the first effort to develop Conceptual Strength-Based Proactive Approach model for counsellors in Gaza city and other cities experiencing similar political instability to apply effective approaches for fostering academic learning, resilience and wellbeing of school children

Este artículo busca desarrollar un "enfoque proactivo basado en la fortaleza para fomentar la resiliencia de los niños en edad escolar" en situaciones de crisis política, para ser utilizado por los orientadores en las escuelas de Gaza, con el fin de promover programas de aprendizaje social y emocional que mejoren la resiliencia y el bienestar de los estudiantes. Se utilizó un enfoque metodológico mixto para recopilar y analizar los datos. Los métodos cualitativos incluyeron la recopilación de datos mediante la revisión de la literatura, 12 entrevistas con directores de escuelas y psicólogos y 12 grupos focales con padres, orientadores y maestros. El método cuantitativo incluyó la recolección de datos utilizando un cuestionario autoadministrado por los estudiantes de la muestra. La población de estudio estaba compuesta por todos los estudiantes de los grados de educación básica en la ciudad de Gaza. La muestra de estudio fue aleatoria y consistió en 619 estudiantes. El análisis estadístico se utilizó para analizar el cuestionario y el análisis de contenido para analizar los datos cualitativos. Los hallazgos obtenidos en este estudio reflejaron que tanto los métodos cualitativos como los cuantitativos resaltaron factores de fortaleza similares que apoyan la creación de resiliencia entre los escolares de Gaza. Definen la capacidad de los niños para adaptarse y tener éxito a pesar de las difíciles condiciones que los rodean, el pensamiento positivo de los niños, la provisión de cuidados, la creación de un entorno escolar de apoyo, la incorporación de temas de resiliencia en el currículo, la participación de los niños en talleres de resiliencia, la construcción de relaciones sólidas entre la escuela y la familia, grupos y buenas relaciones con vecinos y familiares. En conclusión, este estudio se presenta como el primer esfuerzo para desarrollar un modelo conceptual de enfoque proactivo basado en la fortaleza para orientadores en la ciudad de Gaza y otras ciudades que experimentan una inestabilidad política similar para aplicar enfoques efectivos para fomentar el aprendizaje académico, la resiliencia y el bienestar de los niños en edad escolar