The article focuses on the incidence of wife abuse and battering and some of its psychological consequences, as revealed in the First Palestinian National Survey, which was conducted with a national systematic random sample of 2,410 women from the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. The findings indicate that the Palestinian women had experienced high levels of psychological abuse, physical violence, sexual abuse, and economic abuse during the 12 months preceding the study. In addition, analysis of variance revealed that women who had experienced those patterns of abuse expressed higher levels of psychological distress, anger, and fear than did nonabused women. Furthermore, regression and multiple regression analysis revealed that significant amounts of the variance in women's psychological distress, anger, and fear are explained by their experiences with abuse and battering as well as by some of their sociodemographic characteristics.

במאמר זה ייבחנו מבנה המשפחה הערבית ומאפייניה וזיקתם לאלימות נגד נשים, וייסקר יחסן של נשים ערביות כלפי הבעיה וכלפי דפוסי ההתערבות השונים - הרצויים והלא רצויים, כפי שהשתקפו בממצאי שני מחקרים שנערכו בקרב נשים ערביות מישראל (חאג' יחיא, 1997). על בסיס דיון זה יוצגו כיווני התערבות עם נשים ערביות מוכות. (מתוך המאמר)

Israel is a multi-cultural society, and this can no longer be ignored. However, there is a serious lack of theoretical and empirical literature dealing with the implications of Israel's multi-cultural social context for social work education in Israel, as well as its impact on social work practice with different ethnic and national populations in that country. The dearth of material is even more pronounced in the case of Arab students attending Israeli universities. This paper documents the first stage of a project focusing on Arab students at the Paul Baerwald School of Social Work at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. A triangulation method was applied for collection of data from students enrolled in the 3-year programme, graduate students, faculty members and field work supervisors, as well as reports from previous years. Personal, academic and socio-cultural difficulties are documented as well as coping mechanisms and recommendations for schools of social work in Israel. The results are used to demonstrate cultural misunderstanding, educational dilemmas and differences in professional ideologies.

The purpose of this study was to examine Palestinian women's beliefs about wife beating and the extent to which these beliefs are influenced by their patriarchal ideology. A self-administered questionnaire was completed by a systematic random sample of 425 women from the West Bank and Gaza Strip. The results indicate that although one third of the women believed there is no excuse for a man to beat his wife, a substantial percentage still justified wife beating under several conditions (e.g., when a wife is perceived as sexually unfaithful or as challenging her husband's manhood). Furthermore, although most of the participants tended to hold violent husbands responsible for their behavior, a substantial proportion indicated that they understand the violent husbands and do not consider them solely responsible for their behavior. The study shows that adherence to patriarchal ideology significantly explains the variance in participants' beliefs about wife beating. The implications of these results are discussed.

Based on a patriarchal perspective, the article presents a pioneer study of Palestinian husbands' beliefs in the following areas: justifying wife beating, holding violent husbands responsible for their behavior, and blaming the battered wives for violence against them. The results revealed the following trends: (a) High percentages of respondents tend to justify wife beating under different circumstances (e.g., the wife's "sexual unfaithfulness"); (b) although the majority of respondents held violent husbands responsible for their behavior, there was a concomitant tendency to understand the husband; and (c) a high percentage of respondents blamed the wife for violence against her. Patriarchal ideology provided a conceptual framework for presentation and discussion of the findings obtained through regression and multiple regression analyses. The implications of the results for future research as well as for prevention and intervention activities are also discussed.

The predictability of engaged Arab men's perceptions of abusive husbands was tested. The analysis was based on variables reflecting three theoretical perspectives: male dominance, intergenerational social learning, and interpersonal skills deficit. The data were derived from a standardized measurement package completed by 434 Arab men in Israel. The results revealed that a combination of predictors from disparate frameworks best explained the variance in the different criterion variables of the study. Lack of skills for establishing positive communication with one's fiancée, traditional and nonegalitarian expectations of marriage, and experience with or witnessing violence in the family of origin best explained the variance in the belief that abusive husbands should not be held responsible for their behavior. The combination of the first two predictors and negative attitudes toward women best explained the variance in the view of the respondents that abusive husbands should not be punished for their violent behavior.

The article presents a study conducted among 832 Arab adolescents from Israel, in an attempt to predict their use of different tactics (i.e., reasoning, verbal abuse, and physical violence) to resolve conflicts with siblings from the perspective of social learning theory. Different forms of the CT Scales were utilized to elicit information on Arab adolescents' exposure to and experience with different conflict tactics in their families of origin, as well as on their use of such tactics with siblings. Results indicate that the more they witnessed reasoning in their families of origin, the greater the likelihood that they would use the same tactic to resolve conflicts with their siblings. At the same time, the more they witnessed or experienced verbal abuse and physical violence, the greater their use of verbal and physical violence against their siblings. A detailed discussion of different patterns of violence in Arab families as reported by the adolescents is presented, and several implications of the study are addressed.

A large number of Arab social workers are trained in Western, postindustrial societies. This article describes the cultural value conflicts encountered by Arab social work students studying the profession in these societal contexts. Western values are a potential source of conflict, discomfort, and undesirable reactions during the student's professional training. Therefore, this article emphasizes the importance of taking into account the cultural identity of the Arab student as a principle of culturally sensitive supervision. The article also presents five functions of field work supervision that will promote the success of social work training of Arab social work students.

This article presents one of the first studies dealing with beliefs about wife beating in Arab societies. The data were collected from a random sample of 434 engaged Arab men from Israel, in an attempt to explain their different beliefs about wife beating, based on variables representing three frameworks: (a) male dominance; (b) intergenerational learning; and (c) interpersonal skills deficit. The results revealed that a combination of predictors from disparate frameworks best explained the variance in the different criterion variables of the study. The study finds that different beliefs about wife beating among engaged Arab men are explained by the following variables: Patriarchal and nonegalitarian expectations of marriage; inability to establish positive communication; negative attitudes toward women; sex role stereotypes; and witnessing or experiences with violence in their families of origin. The implications of the results are discussed.

Child maltreatment is a multidisciplinary problem with legal, medical, social service, public policy, and mental health components. Therefore, it is essential to understand how members of different disciplines approach this problem. Studies are lacking on this subject in Israel. A preliminary study was conducted with 1,302 students of the four main disciplines dealing with the problem of child maltreatment: psychology, social work, education, and medicine. An instrument constructed for the purpose of this study was utilized to examine the following main areas used by professionals in determining cases of maltreatment: (a) their perception of the various situations of child maltreatment; (b) their awareness of the risk factors of child maltreatment; (c) their awareness of the signs of child maltreatment; and (d) their willingness to report various cases of maltreatment. The results indicate important areas in detecting cases of child maltreatment which students from the four disciplines may disregard. Those areas which could be strengthened in preparing future professionals for fulfilling their roles are discussed.

There is a dearth of knowledge about the problem of child maltreatment in Arab societies. In the West Bank and Gaza Strip, the Palestinians are facing the challenge of establishing their own social welfare system as a result of signing the Declaration of Principles with Israel. In creating services for families and children, the helping professionals in these areas find that one of the main challenges is to integrate and apply knowledge accumulated in Western countries into a different sociocultural context. Another challenge is to develop knowledge on this subject congruent with their own cultural background. Because of this lack of knowledge, a study was conducted among 353 students in the helping professions in the West Bank. An instrument constructed for this study was utilized to examine the following subjects: (a) students' perceptions of situations of child maltreatment; (b) their awareness of signs of maltreated children; (c) their awareness of risk factors which could be related to this problem; and (d) their willingness to report cases of child maltreatment. The results indicate a high level of agreement among students in viewing situations of abuse as well as neglect as maltreatment. Differences were found in their willingness to report situations of maltreatment. A higher tendency was found to report situations of abuse rather than neglect. An inclination was found among students to minimize social and cultural factors as risk factors and to disregard signs that did not contain explicit signals of danger as characteristics of maltreated children. Implications for the development of services in Arab societies are discussed.

Over the past three decades, Arab society in Israel has been undergoing processes of transition. These processes are manifested by changes in the economy, education, the status of women, family structure, and by socio-cultural changes and transformations in patterns of coping with social problems. There is a serious lack of empirical research on the implications of this process for the value systems of Arab society and families in Israel and a dearth of relevant intervention-oriented literature. This article outlines the basic cultural values in the Arab society in Israel in an attempt to illuminate the relevance of these values for family structure and for direct interventions with Arab families in Israel.