Purpose: Many argue for the benefits of controversial political issues (CPI) discussions but little is known about teachers', parents', and students' attitudes toward CPI. The present study explored these attitudes, as well as attitudes towards specific controversial topics, and how they relate to socio-demographic variables.…

This study tested the hypothesis that values, abstract goals serving as guiding life principles, become relatively important predictors of adolescents' self-reported violent behavior in school environments in which violence is relatively common. The study employed a students-nested-in-schools design. Arab and Jewish adolescents (N = 907, M age =…

This is the 1st longitudinal examination of trajectories of resilience and resistance (rather than ill-being) among a national sample under ongoing threat of mass casualty. The authors interviewed a nationally representative sample of Jews and Arabs in Israel (N = 709) at 2 times during a period of terrorist and rocket attacks (2004?2005). The…

Adolescent substance abuse has been on the rise for the past few decades, constituting a major personal and social problem. According to researchers, the causes are many, including biological, temperamental, psychological, behavioral, and environmental factors. Yet, only a few intervention methods have proven effective. Numerous studies…

This study explores whether the association between substance use and involvement in youth violence is a unique association resulting from the properties of the drugs, or whether it is part of a larger behavioral cluster. The sample was composed of 1,571 10th grade students from the Israeli secular and religious state school systems, including…

Findings from 2 studies with 179 male and 158 female Israeli early adolescents and 97 male and 183 female Israeli university students show that male self-esteem is predicted significantly by masculine self-image (SI), female self-esteem is predicted by nonstereotyped SI, and feminine SI significantly predicts the self-esteem of neither gender.…