Prevalence of PTSD among Palestinian children in Gaza Strip

This research study aimed to get acquainted with the prevalence of PTSD, and other psychological suffering among Palestinian children living under severe conditions during the last two and half years of the Al-Aqsa Intifada. The sample consists of 944 children whom age ranged between 10-19 years. The group excluded those with previous mental health problems. In this research, trauma scale, PTSD scale, the Child Posttraumatic Stress Index, the Children’s PTSDsymptoms, The CPTS-RI and open questions had been used as tools. The results indicated that 32.7% of the children started to develop acute PTSD symptoms that need psychological intervention, while 49.2% of them suffered from moderate level of PTSD symptoms. Also the results showed that the most prevalent types of trauma exposure for children are for those who had witnessed funerals (94.6%), witnessed shooting (83.2%), saw injured or dead who were not relatives (66.9%), and saw family members injured or killed (61.6%).