Michal Shamai, Ph.D., Keren Or-Chen, Ph.D., Yael Geron , Ph.D. (Zefat Academic College)

Granted by the: National Insurance Institute

In light of a global social context where the number of people living in poverty is increasing and the gap between the rich and poor is becoming larger, poverty is perceived as one of the most severe and enduring social problems. The basic assumption driving the project proposed here is that policies for fighting poverty need to be based on accurate and relevant theoretical knowledge regarding the daily experiences and challenges of poor populations. Our main objective is to arrive at a comprehensive contextual theory of financial decision-making by people living in poverty and to explain why people living in poverty accept specific types of decisions. To that end we will pursue the following specific objectives: (1) to explore the financial decision-making of people living in poverty; (2) to examine the impact of the social context on the way in which people living in poverty construct their financial decision-making; and (3) to generate an integrated framework of traditionally perceived contradicting perceptions of risky decision-making by utilizing a mixed methodology (quantitative and qualitative methodologies).

Relevant book, papers on family issues:

Sharlin, S. A., & Shamai, M. (1999). Therapeutic intervention with poor unorganized families: From distress to hope. Binghamton, NY: Haworth.

Shamai, M. (2001). Parents’ perception of their children in a context of shared political uncertainty. Family and Child Social Work, 6, 249-260.

Shamai, M., Kimhi, S. & Enosh, G. (2007). The role of social systems on personal reaction to threat of war and terror. Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, 24(5), 747-764.

Possick, C., Sadeh, R.A. & Shamai, M. (2008). Parents' experience and meaning construction of the loss of a child in a national terror attack. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 78 (1), 93-102

Jaboud –Halabi, J. & Shamai, M. (2016). The role of parents in defining collective identity of Arab adolescents in Israel. Family Relations, 65, 300-313.

Shamai, M., Fogel, S. & Gilad, D. (2016) Experiencing couple relationships in the line of fire. Journal of Marital and Family Therapy, 42, 550-563.

Iris Lavi Ongoing projects November 2016

A. Strong communities in Haifa

The project Strong Communities is based upon the ecological perspective and is meant to improve the well-being of children in disadvantaged environments and to reduce neglect and child abuse. The approach of Strong Communities is meant to achieve these purposes through strengthening communal cohesion by constructing a consolidation of activities and communal resources that are available to all the families in the neighborhood. The project was developed by Prof Gary Melton from Clemson University in South Carolina and it is applied in Colorado and in other countries in the United States. In Israel, the project began as a pilot in the neighborhood Kiryat HaShlom in Tel-Aviv, and it is operated by social workers from the department of social services in Tel-Aviv in cooperation with the school for social work in Tel-Aviv University and is accompanied with evaluative research of crew of researchers form the school.

In Haifa, Strong Communities will start in Halissa neighborhood and will include these phases of community work: (1) Campaign and branding the project; (2) Promotion of Strong Communities space and dialogue circles at school and in the community; and (3) Virtual space for strong communities. Phase (1) will begin at January 2017. 

The project is in collaboration with Dr. Ruth Berkowitz.

B. Basic psychological processes in families challenged by child maltreatment

How can we understand maltreating behaviors of parents? Can we harness our understanding of core psychological processes to better comprehend such behaviors? In this project, we aim to examine what are the relations between various emotional processes (emotion reactivity, emotion regulation, and threat perception) and maltreating behaviors of the parent. A second major aim is to explore the emotional biases resulting from child maltreatment.

B1. An Emotion Regulation Perspective on Child Maltreatment: A meta-analytic review

Iris Lavi, University of Haifa
Emily J. Ozer, University of California, Berkeley 
Lynn Fainsilber Katz, University of Washington
James J. Gross, Stanford University

The study meta-analytically reviews the link between emotion reactivity, emotion regulation and child maltreatment. In comparison to non-maltreating parents, maltreating parents experience more negative emotions, display more behaviors that are congruent with negative emotions, are dysregulated and impulsive. Also, in comparison to non-maltreated children, children who had experienced maltreatment experience more negative emotions, display more behaviors that are congruent with negative emotions and are dysregulated. Preliminary results of this paper were presented in four conferences and invited talks.

B2. Beside themselves: Emotion Regulation of Emotionally Maltreating Parents

Iris Lavi, University of Haifa
Elizabeth Seibert, University of South California
Iris Manor-Binyamini, University of Haifa
James J. Gross, Stanford University

Emotional maltreatment is one of the harshest sub-types of child maltreatment, and although it is very frequent and accompanies most other sub-types of child maltreatment, it is a much neglected topic of scientific inquiry. The study reviews the emotion reactivity and emotion regulation patterns of emotionally maltreating parents. Eight studies examining this relation have been located, indicating a relatively steady levels of hyper-reactivity to negative emotions and higher dysregulation among emotionally maltreating parents in comparison to non-maltreating parents.

B3. Parental co-regulation of sadness

Iris Lavi, University of Haifa
Amit Goldenberg, Stanford University
Yael Enav, Stanford University
James J. Gross, Stanford University

In this paper we examine co-regulation of parents: how the regulation of emotions of one parent relates to the emotion regulation of the second parent. We are experimentally examining this process in the context of dealing with sadness. We are currently administering the Study 3 of this project.

C. Parenting programs

Several evidence-based parenting programs are available, with various foci, in accordance to children’s age, family issues to resolve, type of techniques utilized and basic principles that the program relies on. As part of this project, we are aiming to (A) bring evidence-based parenting programs to Israel, e.g., the Triple-P; and (B) to examine effectiveness of parenting programs (Triple-P, The Incredible Years), with reference to personal and organizational factors that might influence this effectiveness.

C1. Personal and organizational factors and the effectiveness of parenting programs

Iris Lavi, University of Haifa
Stephanie Romney, Parenting Training Institute, San Francisco

The effectiveness of the Triple-P in a sample of about 1,400 families that underwent the program in the last few years. We will address the personal and organizational factors that affect effectiveness.

D. Stress in families challenged by Pediatric Cancer

In this project, headed by Prof. Lynn Fainsilber Katz (Psychology, U. of Washington) follows, for a year, stress and conflict in families challenged by pediatric cancer. We aim to ascertain time points of significant stress and trajectories of conflict in these families. This research will aid in understanding the challenges faced by these families, and has practical implications for intervention and prevention.

D1. Stress and marital adjustment in families with Pediatric Cancer

Iris Lavi, University of Haifa
Lynn Fainsilber Katz, University of Washington
And several other co-authors

Pediatric cancer poses a great strain on the family. The parents often need to rely on their strength as a unit to overcome this challenge. In this paper, we examine how various illness-related stressors impact marital adjustment.

E. The physiology of stress

E1. Nature, rumination and physiology

Greg Bratman, Stanford University
Iris Lavi, University of Haifa
Rebecca R. Lian, University of California, Berkeley 
James J. Gross, Stanford University

In this meta-analysis, we examine the effect of experiencing nature on rumination and physiological hyper-reactivity. It is well known that experiencing nature (e.g., forest bathing, taking walks, viewing scenery) can result in well-being and can result in low rumination. However, what is the exact process that occurs? In this project, we focus on whether natural experiences lead to lower physiological reactivity and this is followed by lower rumination, or whether lower rumination is followed by lower physiological reactivity.

Papers under review

1.       Katz, L. F., Fladeboe, K., Lavi, I., King, K., Kawamura, J., Friedman, D., Stettler, N. (Under submission ). Trajectories of marital adjustment, parent-child conflict and sibling conflict in families of children with cancer.
2.       Slone, M., Lavi, I., Ozer, E. J., & Pollak, A. (Under submission). The Israeli-Palestinian conflict: Meta-analysis of exposure and outcome relations for children of the region.
3.       Canetti, D., Navot, D., Lavi, I., Vashdi, D., & Hobfoll, S. E. (Revise and resubmit). Political resources effect? Evidence from a longitudinal study on exposure to violence and psychological distress in Israel.

Grant proposals:

BSF: Getting to the Heart of Parenting: Core Psychological Processes in Maltreating Parents

ISF: Beside themselves: Emotion Regulation of Emotionally Maltreating Parents

Experiences and Meanings of Traumatic Grief among Israeli and Palestinian Families, Phd. Maya Zephaty and Prof. Adital Ben-Ari, (Submitted to Israeli Science Foundation

This study is designed to gain a comprehensive understanding of grief among Israeli and Palestinian families, who lost loved ones due to the prolonged armed political conflict in the region. The proposed study adopts a contextual, cross-cultural perspective to explore the ways in which culture and context shape the experiences and meanings of familial grief. We will examine the experiences, meanings and socio-political activity among Israeli and Palestinian family members who have lost a close relative due to the armed political conflict between the two peoples. The Parents Circle – Families Forum (PCFF), a joint Israeli-Palestinian organization of members who lost a close family member due to the armed political conflict, will serve as the site for studying the phenomenon. In so doing, it is believed that the proposed study will expand the body of knowledge concerning grief as embedded in different socio-cultural, religious and political settings. Based on the information gained by the proposed research, we hope to suggest culturally sensitive interventions geared towards working with these families.

Socio-Economic Changes and Divorce in Developing Societies: The Case of the Palestinians-Arabs in Israel

Dr. Maha Sabah and Prof. Adital Ben-Ari (submitted to the Ministry of Science & Technology)

This project examines relations between socio-economic changes and divorce, focusing on how education, earnings and gender, and the intersection between them, affect the likelihood of divorce in Palestinian-Arab society in Israel. In recent years, divorce rates among Palestinians-Arabs in Israel has significantly increased. These trends were accompanied by massive socio-economic changes due to the expansion of education, especially among women. This study takes into consideration that Palestinian society in Israel has undergone changes in the realms of women's education and in their involvement in the labour market, while still holding onto traditional norms regarding family life and gender roles. It will adopt a mixed-methods approach, both qualitative and the quantitative. The quantitative method will enable us to follow and analyze the way women’s education and economic resources connect to marriage stability, by using a unique set of register-based data for Palestinian Arab couples in Israel from 1995 until 2015, in addition to census data from the years 1995 and 2008. We will expand our understanding of the meaning and power of socio-economic changes on the dissolution of marriage, by carrying out 45 in-depth interviews with divorced women.