Executive functions in Palestinian Children: Effects of chronic conflict and psychosocial factors
Bibliographic record
Abstract
• Chronic conflict impacts executive functions differently by trauma type. • Gaza children show slower, careful cognitive processing under stress. • West Bank children display faster but impulsive cognitive responses. • Resilience and well-being buffer negative cognitive effects of trauma. • Context-specific interventions are vital for cognitive support in conflicts. The present study investigated core executive functions (working memory, inhibitory control, and cognitive flexibility) in Palestinian boys aged 9 to 11 living in two distinct conflict-affected contexts: the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. Data from 123 children enrolled in UNRWA-administered schools were analyzed to explore how ongoing exposure to conflict-related trauma affects executive functioning. The participants completed adapted cognitive tasks (Stroop, spatial n-back, Wisconsin Card Sorting Task) and self-report measures of resilience, well-being, and traumatic event exposure. Robust MANOVA indicated significant differences between groups, with Gaza children displaying slower but more accurate working memory performance and fewer reported traumatic events compared to their West Bank counterparts, who responded faster but with lower accuracy and reported higher trauma exposure. Within-group analyses revealed nuanced associations; higher resilience and well-being were linked to improved executive function outcomes, particularly in Gaza, highlighting potential protective effects. Conversely, trauma exposure exhibited context-specific cognitive correlates, suggesting differential impacts depending on trauma characteristics. The findings underscore the complexity of trauma effects on executive functions and highlight the importance of resilience and well-being as potential buffers. This study emphasizes the necessity for tailored psychosocial and educational interventions to mitigate the cognitive impacts of chronic conflict exposure in children.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.001 | 0.001 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Research integrity | 0.000 | 0.001 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".