Peace-Building Interventions for Israeli and Palestinian Youth

NCT02122887 | Completed Results DMC

• 1 other identifier: BIU901305
• Study Type: interventional
• Target: 101
• Locations: 1 country
• Sites: 1

Brief Summary

The investigators expect an intervention that focuses on actual dialogue and familiarity with members of the other culture, discussion of empathy, generosity, and kindness, and focus on adaptive and reciprocal modes of conflict resolution will alter both physiological, behavioral, and mental response to the pain of the other, increase empathy, and reduce hostility.

Conditions

Healthy

Keywords

jewish, arab, israel, teenagers

Outcome Measures

Primary Outcomes (3)

• Behavioral Assessment of Dialogue

  Interactions were coded with the "Coding Interactive Behavior" (CIB) manual (Feldman, 1998), adolescent version. This version of the CIB is composed of 32 codes rated on a scale of 1 to 5, as higher score mean a better outcome. The Two following constructs were used: A personal measure of "Behavioral Empathy" - an average of the following CIB codes: expressing empathy, acknowledging other's communication, elaborating other's topics and ideas, maintaining positive affect, maintaining visual, and give-and-receive reciprocity and Dyadic Tension - averaged codes; displaying a tense, anxious, and uneasy behavior, fear, and constriction of communicative output and social behavior.

  trail 1-baseline

• Hormonal Assays- Oxytocin

  Three saliva samples were collected using Salivettes® at baseline, following interaction, and ten minutes after end and averaged. All samples were then stored at -20°C. Salivette were treated as following: centrifuged twice, at 4°C at 1500 x g for 30 minutes, aliquoted and lyophilized over few days- to concentrate by 4 times. The dry samples were reconstructed in the assay buffer immediately before analysis using an oxytocin enzyme immunoassay commercial kit (ENZO, NY). The assay preformed according the kit's instruction. The concentration of oxytocin was calculated using MatLab-7

  trail 1- baseline

• PT (Perspective-taking)

  Participants were interviewed individually on their attitudes towards the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Perspective-taking (PT), addressed the degree to which adolescents thought justice was solely on their side and the other side is totally wrong, aggressive, and vicious compared to the ability to see some justice on both sides. Participants received binary score for PT, as 1 is some ability to see justice on the other side, and 0 is seeing justice only in own side.

  trail 1-baseline

Secondary Outcomes (5)

• Behavioral Assessment of Dialogue

  trail 2- 3 months after trail 1

• Hormonal Assays-Oxytocin

  trail 2- 3 months after trail1

• Changes in PT (Perspective-taking) After Intervention

  trail 2- 3 months after trail 1

• Changes in Tension as a Function of Perspective-taking and Group

  trail 2- 3 months after trail1

• Changes in Empathy as a Function of Perspective Taking

  trail 2- 3 months after trail 1

Study Arms (2)

control group

NO INTERVENTION

no intervention for 3 months

experimental group

EXPERIMENTAL

Peace-Building Intervention Process- The intervention process consists of eight sessions and adheres to a manualized protocol that we developed. Each session lasts 120 minutes.

Behavioral: Peace-Building Intervention Process

Interventions

Peace-Building Intervention Process BEHAVIORAL

The eight sessions include (1) presentation of the self to others members (2) getting familiar with the other culture (3) what is a conflict - how do conflicts come about, what are adaptive and non-adaptive modes of resolving conflict (4) getting to know the "Other" - preconceived notions about the other side (5) on dialogue- what is dialogue, can dialogue offer means for conflict resolution, what are the benefits of dialogue to inter-cultural and inter-racial conflicts, (6) empathy, generosity, and kindness (7) wrapping up - hopes for the future at the personal and community levels, practical suggestions (8) goodbye and summary - what have we learned ,"gift giving", summary of process by group leaders.

experimental group

Eligibility Criteria

• Age: 15 Years - 18 Years
• Sex: all
• Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Age Groups: Child (0-17), Adult (18-64)

You may qualify if:

• jewish israeli
• arab israeli
• lives in the center of israel
• both parents agree to participation

You may not qualify if:

• no mental disorder
• no neurological-developmental disorder

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Bar-Ilan University, Israel: lead

Study Sites (1)

Bar Ilan University

Ramat Gan, 5290002, Israel

Location

Related Publications (1)

• Influs M, Masalha S, Zagoory-Shaon O, Feldman R. Dialogue intervention to youth amidst intractable conflict attenuates stress response to outgroup. Horm Behav. 2019 Apr;110:68-76. doi: 10.1016/j.yhbeh.2019.02.013. Epub 2019 Mar 9.

  PMID: 30807738 DERIVED

Limitations and Caveats

Larger numbers are required before generalizations can be made. Participants had inters on resolving the conflict, enrolled from their own free will. The intervention group got no other intervention. We measured peripheral, not central Oxytocin.

Results Point of Contact

• Title: Moran Influs
• Organization: Bar Ilan University

moran.influs@gmail.com

972-35317943

Study Officials

• Moran Influs, MA

  Bar Ilan University, Ramat Gan, Israel

  PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR

Publication Agreements

• PI is Sponsor Employee: Yes

Study Design

• Study Type: interventional
• Phase: not applicable
• Allocation: RANDOMIZED
• Masking: DOUBLE
• Who Masked: PARTICIPANT, OUTCOMES ASSESSOR
• Purpose: OTHER
• Intervention Model: PARALLEL
• Sponsor Type: OTHER
• Responsible Party: PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR
• PI Title: research manager

Study Record Dates

• First Submitted: April 23, 2014
• First Posted: April 25, 2014
• Study Start: March 1, 2014
• Primary Completion: November 1, 2015
• Study Completion: November 1, 2015
• Last Updated: April 3, 2020
• Results First Posted: August 5, 2019

Record last verified: 2020-03

Locations

IL (1)