41. Quota, S., Punamäki, R. L., and El Sarraj, E. House Demolition and Mental Health: Victims and Witnesses. Journal of Social Distress and the Homeless 1997; 6,3: 203-211.

In this article, findings are presented about the effects of losing one's home and witnessing the demolition of other people's houses on the mental health of Palestinians. The sample included three groups: a loss group of 47 adults, a witness group of 24 adults and a control group of 33 adults who did not lose a house to demolition or witness it. These groups were compared for their anxiety, depression and paranoiac symptoms. Similar groups were also selected among children to compare for their psychological symptoms. The results indicated that adults exposed to house demolitions suffered from higher levels of anxiety, depression and paranoiac symptoms than the other groups. The children in the loss group demonstrated a higher level of psychological symptoms than the children in the witness and control groups. Women suffered more from anxiety, depression and paranoiac symptoms than men in the loss and witness groups but not in the control group.