title: Maltreatment and coping strategies among male adolescents living in the Gaza Strip.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To establish the nature and extent of maltreatment experiences, coping strategies, and behavioral/emotional problems, and their relationships, in a sample of Palestinian adolescents.
  
  
  METHODS
  A study of 97 male adolescents aged 15-19 years, and attending a vocational training center based in the Gaza Strip. Adolescents completed the Child Maltreatment Schedule and the Ways of Coping Scale (WAYS). The Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) was completed by adolescents and by their teachers.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Findings revealed high rates of emotional and physical maltreatment. Reliance on emotion-focused or avoidant coping strategies was associated with exposure to maltreatment. Use of maladaptive coping also predicted emotional difficulties in the respondents.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Coping strategies are an important indicator of psychosocial functioning in adolescents who have experienced maltreatment. Identification of coping styles can augment the assessment of at-risk adolescents. Emotion-focused strategies, in particular, appear to be widely used by young people from non-Western cultural backgrounds.
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Public Health, Al-Quds University, Gaza, Gaza Strip, Palestine.
authors.forename: Abdel Aziz Mousa
authors.initials: AA
authors.lastname: Thabet
authors.forename: Victoria
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Tischler
authors.forename: Panos
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Vostanis
mesh_terms: D000223:Adaptation, Psychological; D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D002649:Child Abuse / Q000523:psychology*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008603:Mental Health; D008877:Middle East