Political imprisonment and adult functioning: a life event history analysis of Palestinians

Abstract

Political imprisonment is a traumatic event, often accompanied by torture and deprivation. This study explores the association of political imprisonment between 1987 and 2011 with political, economic, community, psychological, physical, and family functioning in a population based sample of Palestinian men ages 32–43 years (N = 884) derived from a dataset collected in 2011. Twenty-six percent (n = 233) had been politically imprisoned. Men imprisoned between 1987 and 2005 reported functioning as well as never-imprisoned men in most domains, suggesting that men imprisoned as youth have moved forward with their lives in ways similar to their non-imprisoned counterparts. In an exception to this pattern, men imprisoned during the Oslo Accords period (1994–1999) reported higher levels of trauma-related stress (B = 0.24, p = .027) compared to never-imprisoned men. Men imprisoned since 2006 reported lower functioning in multiple domains: human insecurity (B = 0.33, p = .023), freedom of public expression (B=−0.48, p = .017), perceived government stability (B=−0.38, p = .009), feeling broken or destroyed (B = 0.59, p = .001), physical limitations (B = 0.55, p = .002), and community belonging (B = −0.33, p = .048). Findings pointed to the value of examining the effects of imprisonment on functioning in multiple domains.