Peace-Building Interventions for Israeli and Palestinian Youth

Peace-Building Interventions for Israeli and Palestinian Youth: Effects on Biological and Behavioral Markers of Empathy, Prejudice, and Dialogue

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.

Study Overview

• Status: Completed
• Conditions: Healthy
• Intervention / Treatment: Behavioral: Peace-Building Intervention Process

Detailed Description

We hypothesized that the intervention will impact perspective taking (PT) on the national conflict, reducing the tendency to view justice only on one's side. Such increase in PT would initiate a chain leading to greater behavioral empathy.

Second, we hypothesize that change in oxytocin (OT) levels and empathic behavior (less withdrawal and tension and more synchrony) would be impacted by the intervention and the degree to which it altered youth PT on the conflict.

Finally, we suggest a 3-path model charting the multi-dimensional pathways leading to behavioral empathy toward outgroup member. First, individual differences in OT functionality will shape empathy so that youth with higher OT levels at pre-intervention and greater PT will show more empathic dialogue at post-intervention. Second, dispositional cognitive empathy, as tested by the Interpersonal Reactivity Index questioner (IRI), at pre-intervention will predict higher behavioral empathy at T2, both directly and as mediated by reduction in ethnocentric attitudes following the intervention. Finally, we hypothesize that the intervention will influence empathy by initiating a chain that begins with increasing PT, which, in turn, will lead to reduction in tension during interaction with outgroup, and culminating in greater empathy during face-to-face encounters

• Study Type: Interventional
• Enrollment (Actual): 101
• Phase: Not Applicable

Contacts and Locations

Study Locations

• Israel
  • Ramat Gan, Israel, 5290002
    • Bar Ilan University

Participation Criteria

Eligibility Criteria

• Ages Eligible for Study: 15 years to 18 years (ADULT, CHILD)
• Accepts Healthy Volunteers: Yes
• Genders Eligible for Study: All

Description

Inclusion Criteria:

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

Exclusion Criteria:

• no mental disorder
• no neurological-developmental disorder

Study Plan

How is the study designed?

Design Details

• Primary Purpose: OTHER
• Allocation: RANDOMIZED
• Interventional Model: PARALLEL
• Masking: DOUBLE

Number of Arms

2

Arms and Interventions

Participant Group / Arm	Intervention / Treatment
NO_INTERVENTION: control group; no intervention for 3 months
EXPERIMENTAL: experimental group; 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; 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.

What is the study measuring?

Primary Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
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 Outcome Measures

Outcome Measure	Measure Description	Time Frame
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 2- 3 months after trail 1
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 2- 3 months after trail1
Changes in PT (Perspective-taking) After Intervention	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.	trail 2- 3 months after trail 1
Changes in Tension as a Function of Perspective-taking and Group	Perspective-taking (PT), addressed the degree to which adolescents thought justice was solely on their side compared to the ability to see some justice on both sides. Participants received binary score for PT and were divided to high vs low PT groups accordingly. We compared participants' tension levels, according to level of PT and group (intervention or control). 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 means a better outcome. Dyadic Tension is the averaged codes; displaying a tense, anxious, and uneasy behavior, fear, and constriction of communicative output and social behavior.	trail 2- 3 months after trail1
Changes in Empathy as a Function of Perspective Taking	Perspective-taking (PT), addressed the degree to which adolescents thought justice was solely on their side compared to the ability to see some justice on both sides. Participants received binary score for PT and were divided to high vs low PT groups accordingly. We compared participants' behavioral empathy levels. 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 means a better outcome. "Behavioral Empathy" is the 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	trail 2- 3 months after trail 1

Collaborators and Investigators

• Sponsor: Bar-Ilan University, Israel
• Investigators: Principal Investigator: Moran Influs, MA, Bar Ilan University, Ramat Gan, Israel

Publications and helpful links

General Publications

• 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.

Study record dates

Study Major Dates

• Study Start: March 1, 2014
• Primary Completion (ACTUAL): November 1, 2015
• Study Completion (ACTUAL): November 1, 2015

Study Registration Dates

• First Submitted: April 23, 2014
• First Submitted That Met QC Criteria: April 24, 2014
• First Posted (ESTIMATE): April 25, 2014

Study Record Updates

• Last Update Posted (ACTUAL): April 3, 2020
• Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria: March 21, 2020
• Last Verified: March 1, 2020

More Information

Terms related to this study

• Keywords: jewish, arab, israel, teenagers
• Other Study ID Numbers: BIU901305